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[hohl] /hoʊl/
an opening through something; gap; aperture:
a hole in the roof; a hole in my sock.
a hollow place in a solid body or mass; a cavity:
a hole in the ground.
the excavated habitation of an animal; burrow.
a small, dingy, or shabby place:
I couldn't live in a hole like that.
a place of solitary confinement; dungeon.
an embarrassing position or predicament:
to find oneself in a hole.
a cove or small harbor.
a fault or flaw:
They found serious holes in his reasoning.
a deep, still place in a stream:
a swimming hole.
  1. a small cavity, into which a marble, ball, or the like is to be played.
  2. a score made by so playing.
  1. the circular opening in a green into which the ball is to be played.
  2. a part of a golf course from a tee to the hole corresponding to it, including fairway, rough, and hazards.
  3. the number of strokes taken to hit the ball from a tee into the hole corresponding to it.
Informal. opening; slot:
The radio program was scheduled for the p.m. hole. We need an experienced person to fill a hole in our accounting department.
Metalworking. (in wire drawing) one reduction of a section.
Electronics. a mobile vacancy in the electronic structure of a semiconductor that acts as a positive charge carrier and has equivalent mass.
Aeronautics. an air pocket that causes a plane or other aircraft to drop suddenly.
verb (used with object), holed, holing.
to make a hole or holes in.
to put or drive into a hole.
Golf. to hit the ball into (a hole).
to bore (a tunnel, passage, etc.).
verb (used without object), holed, holing.
to make a hole or holes.
Verb phrases
hole out, Golf. to strike the ball into a hole:
He holed out in five, one over par.
hole up,
  1. to go into a hole; retire for the winter, as a hibernating animal.
  2. to hide, as from pursuers, the police, etc.:
    The police think the bank robbers are holed up in Chicago.
burn a hole in one's pocket, to urge one to spend money quickly:
His inheritance was burning a hole in his pocket.
hole in the wall, a small or confining place, especially one that is dingy, shabby, or out-of-the-way:
Their first shop was a real hole in the wall.
in a / the hole,
  1. in debt; in straitened circumstances:
    After Christmas I am always in the hole for at least a month.
  2. Baseball, Softball. pitching or batting with the count of balls or balls and strikes to one's disadvantage, especially batting with a count of two strikes and one ball or none.
  3. Stud Poker. being the card or one of the cards dealt face down in the first round:
    a king in the hole.
make a hole in, to take a large part of:
A large bill from the dentist made a hole in her savings.
pick a hole / holes in, to find a fault or flaw in:
As soon as I presented my argument, he began to pick holes in it.
Also, poke a hole/holesin.
Origin of hole
before 900; Middle English; Old English hol hole, cave, orig. neuter of hol (adj.) hollow; cognate with German hohl hollow
Related forms
holeless, adjective
holey, adjective
Can be confused
hole, whole (see synonym study at the current entry; see synonym study at whole)
holey, holy, wholly.
1, 2. pit, hollow, concavity. Hole, cavity, excavation refer to a hollow place in anything. Hole is the common word for this idea: a hole in turf. Cavity is a more formal or scientific term for a hollow within the body or in a substance, whether with or without a passage outward: a cavity in a tooth; the cranial cavity. An excavation is an extended hole made by digging out or removing material: an excavation before the construction of a building. 3. den, cave; lair, retreat. 4. hovel, shack. Unabridged
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Examples from the Web for holing up
Historical Examples
  • Here he makes his nest and passes the winter, holing up in October or November and coming out again in April.

  • To Shann's mind his own first plan of holing up back in the eastern mountains was better.

    Storm Over Warlock Andre Norton
  • Pat says why not dismantle interior of rocket to find out where they're holing up?

    The Dope on Mars John Michael Sharkey
British Dictionary definitions for holing up


an area hollowed out in a solid
an opening made in or through something
an animal's hiding place or burrow
(informal) an unattractive place, such as a town or a dwelling
(informal) a cell or dungeon
(US, informal) a small anchorage
a fault (esp in the phrase pick holes in)
(slang) a difficult and embarrassing situation
the cavity in various games into which the ball must be thrust
(on a golf course)
  1. the cup on each of the greens
  2. each of the divisions of a course (usually 18) represented by the distance between the tee and a green
  3. the score made in striking the ball from the tee into the hole
  1. a vacancy in a nearly full band of quantum states of electrons in a semiconductor or an insulator. Under the action of an electric field holes behave as carriers of positive charge
  2. (as modifier): hole current
  3. a vacancy in the nearly full continuum of quantum states of negative energy of fermions. A hole appears as the antiparticle of the fermion
in holes, so worn as to be full of holes: his socks were in holes
(mainly US) in the hole
  1. in debt
  2. (of a card, the hole card, in stud poker) dealt face down in the first round
make a hole in, to consume or use a great amount of (food, drink, money, etc): to make a hole in a bottle of brandy
to make a hole or holes in (something)
(golf) when intr, often foll by out. to hit (the ball) into the hole
Word Origin
Old English hol; related to Gothic hulundi, German Höhle, Old Norse hylr pool, Latin caulis hollow stem; see hollow
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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Word Origin and History for holing up



Old English hol "orifice, hollow place, cave, perforation," from Proto-Germanic *hul (cf. Old Saxon, Old Frisian, Old High German hol, Middle Dutch hool, Old Norse holr, German hohl "hollow," Gothic us-hulon "to hollow out"), from PIE root *kel- (see cell).




Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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holing up in Science
A gap, usually the valence band of an insulator or semiconductor, that would normally be filled with one electron. If an electron accelerated by a voltage moves into a gap, it leaves a gap behind it, and in this way the hole itself appears to move through the substance. Even though holes are in fact the absence of a negatively charged particle (an electron), they can be treated theoretically as positively charged particles, whose motion gives rise to electric current.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
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Slang definitions & phrases for holing up



  1. Any nasty or unpleasant place; dump, joint: The restaurant turned out to be a loathsome little hole (1616+)
  2. The vulva or anus (1340+)

Related Terms

ace in the hole, big hole, brown, bunghole, cornhole, in a hole, in the hole, the nineteenth hole, not know one's ass from one's elbow, rathole

Copyright (C) 2007 by HarperCollins Publishers.
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Idioms and Phrases with holing up
The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
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