hole

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A hollowed place in something solid; a cavity or pit: dug a hole in the ground with a shovel.
2. n. An opening or perforation: a hole in the clouds; had a hole in the elbow of my sweater.
3. n. Sports An opening in a defensive formation, such as the area of a baseball infield between two adjacent fielders.
4. n. A fault or flaw: There are holes in your argument.
5. n. A deep place in a body of water.
6. n. An animal's hollowed-out habitation, such as a burrow.
7. n. An ugly, squalid, or depressing dwelling.
8. n. A deep or isolated place of confinement; a dungeon.
9. n. An awkward situation; a predicament.
10. n. Sports The small pit lined with a cup into which a golf ball must be hit.
11. n. Sports One of the divisions of a golf course, from tee to cup.
12. n. Physics A vacant position in a crystal left by the absence of an electron, especially a position in a semiconductor that acts as a carrier of positive electric charge. Also called electron hole.
13. v. To put a hole in.
14. v. To put or propel into a hole.
15. v. To make a hole in something.
16. hole out Sports To hit a golf ball into the hole.
17. hole up To hibernate in or as if in a hole.
18. hole up Informal To take refuge in or as if in a hideout.
19. idiom. in the hole Having a score below zero.
20. idiom. in the hole In debt.
21. idiom. in the hole At a disadvantage.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Hollow; deep; concave.
2. Hollow; hungry.
3. n. A hollow place or cavity in a solid body; a perforation, orifice, aperture, pit, rent, or crevice.
4. n. The excavated habitation of certain wild animals, as the fox, the badger, etc.; a burrow.
5. n. Hence A narrow, dark, or obscure lodging or place; especially, an obscure lodging for one in hiding, or a secret room for a prohibited or disreputable business, as for counterfeiting, unlicensed printing, liquor-selling, etc.: as, a rum-hole.
6. n. The hollow interior of a ship: now called, by corruption, the hold. See hold.
7. n. An indentation in the coast; a cove, or small harbor, as Holmes's Hole in Martha's Vineyard, and Wood's Hole on the coast opposite; a narrow passage or waterway between two islands, as Robinson's Hole, in the same region. In 1875 the name Wood's Hole was changed to Wood's Holl, in conformity with the (unfounded) supposition that hole in such local. names is a corruption of a Norse word holl, meaning ‘hill’ (see etymology of hill), introduced by the Norsemen in the tenth century, and preserved from that remote period by the American Indians.
8. n. A level grassy area surrounded by mountains: a word formerly much in use and still current in the northern parts of the Rocky Mountains. Such places are also sometimes called parks, and occasionally, in certain regions, basins. The use of the term hole implies a more complete isolation and environment of mountains than does that of basin. Park is a more familiar name for localities of this kind in the southern Rocky Mountains.
9. n. A puzzling situation; a scrape; a fix.
10. n. Synonyms Opening, cave, cavity, excavation, hollow.
11. n. Den, kennel, hovel.
12. To cut, dig, or make a hole or holes in: as, to hole a post for the insertion of rails or bars; to hole a flute.
13. To drive into a hole.
14. In mining: To connect two workings with each other.
15. In coal-mining, to undercut the coal, or pick away the lower part of the seam, so that that which is above can be thrown down by means of wedges or by the use of powder.
16. To go into a hole, as an animal into its den or burrow.
17. Specifically, to retire into a den or burrow for the winter: said of a hibernating animal.
18. The former and more correct spelling of whole.
19. In billiards, to win by pocketing. Some billiard games of mixed pockets and caroms require the final shot to be a carom; others insist upon a pocket.
20. A simplified (and the earlier) spelling of whole.

Wiktionary

1. n. A hollow spot in a surface.
2. n. An opening in a solid.
3. n. golf A subsurface standard-size hole, also called cup, hitting the ball into which is the object of play. Each hole, of which there are usually eighteen as the standard on a full course, is located on a prepared surface, called the green, of a particular type grass.
4. n. golf The part of a game in which a player attempts to hit the ball into one of the holes.
5. n. archaeology, slang An excavation pit or trench.
6. n. figuratively A weakness, a flaw
7. n. informal A container or receptacle.
8. n. physics In semiconductors, a lack of an electron in an occupied band behaving like a positively charged particle.
9. n. computing A security vulnerability in software which can be taken advantage of by an exploit.
10. n. An orifice, in particular the anus.
11. n. informal A high-security prison cell, often used as punishment.
12. n. slang An undesirable place to live or visit; a hovel
13. n. baseball The rear portion of the defensive team between the shortstop and the third baseman.
14. n. chess A square on the board, with some positional significance, that a player does not, and cannot in future, control with a friendly pawn.
15. v. transitive To make holes in (an object or surface).
16. v. transitive, by extension To destroy.
17. v. To go or get into a hole.
18. v. golf To successfully get one's ball into the hole.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. obsolete Whole.
2. n. A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; an opening in or through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent; a fissure.
3. n. An excavation in the ground, made by an animal to live in, or a natural cavity inhabited by an animal; hence, a low, narrow, or dark lodging or place; a mean habitation.
4. n. A small cavity used in some games, usually one into which a marble or ball is to be played or driven; hence, a score made by playing a marble or ball into such a hole, as in golf.
5. n. (Fives) At Eton College, England, that part of the floor of the court between the step and the pepperbox.
6. v. To cut, dig, or bore a hole or holes in.
7. v. To drive into a hole, as an animal, or a billiard ball.
8. v. To go or get into a hole.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an opening into or through something
2. n. an unoccupied space
3. n. one playing period (from tee to green) on a golf course
4. v. make holes in
5. n. a fault
6. v. hit the ball into the hole
7. n. informal terms for a difficult situation
8. n. informal terms for the mouth
9. n. a depression hollowed out of solid matter
10. n. an opening deliberately made in or through something