Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A small compartment or recess, as in a desk, for holding papers; a cubbyhole.
- n. A specific, often oversimplified category.
- n. The small hole or holes in a pigeon loft for nesting.
- v. To place or file in a small compartment or recess.
- v. To classify mentally; categorize.
- v. To put aside and ignore; shelve.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One of the holes in a dove-cote or pigeon-house through which the birds pass in and out.
- n. Hence A little compartment or division in a case for papers, a bureau, a desk, or the like.
- n. One of a series of holes in an arch of a furnace through which the gases of combustion pass.
- n. One of a series of holes in the block at the bottom of a keir through which its liquid contents can be discharged.
- n. plural An old English game, resembling modern bagatelle, in which balls were rolled through little cavities or arches.
- n. In printing, an over-wide space between printed words. Also called rat-hole.
- To place or file away in a pigeonhole; hence, to lay aside for future consideration; hence, to lay aside and ignore or forget; “shelve”; treat with intentional neglect: as, to pigeonhole an application for an appointment; to pigeonhole a scheme.
Wiktionary
- n. A nook in a desk for holding papers.
- n. One of an array of compartments for sorting post, messages etc. at an office, or college (for example).
- n. A hole, or roosting place for pigeons.
- v. To categorize; especially to limit or be limited to a particular category, role, etc.
- v. To put aside, to not act on (proposals, suggestions, advice).
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. An old English game, in which balls were rolled through little arches.
- n. A small compartment in a desk or case for the keeping of letters, documents, etc.; -- so called from the resemblance of a row of them to the compartments in a dovecote.
- v. To place in the pigeonhole of a case or cabinet; hence, to put away; to lay aside indefinitely.
WordNet 3.0
- v. place into a small compartment
- v. treat or classify according to a mental stereotype
- n. a small compartment
- n. a specific (often simplistic) category
Etymologies
- pigeon + hole. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Because I can't really separate the new from the old, the easiest way to clean out a label (what I call a pigeonhole) is to actually have enough time to deal with everything and empty it out.”
“With "You Are Where You Live," now you can discover what your pigeonhole is called -- just enter your ZIP code and the service will cough up your most likely demographic info (I'm either a Successful Single, a Mover And Shaker, a Mid-Life Success, a Great Beginning or an Urban Up And Comer).”
“So when they came to label the pigeonhole in the mailroom where letters are placed for the newest member of the Obama family, they settled on the word "Dog".”
“It's really tough to pigeonhole, which is why it's taken me a week and a half to write a simple damn review.”
“I wrote the melody myself, and I don't think of myself as a good enough musician to kind of pigeonhole an area and write to it.”
“The person who is so close-minded to "pigeonhole" themselves into a certain way of thinking, i.e., strictly liberal or strictly conservative is what the true definition of ignorance is all about.”
“A 'present' vote was hard to pigeonhole which is exactly what Obama wanted.”
Hillary Hits Obama In New Speech: "I've Heard A Lot Of Talk About Turning The Page"
“I wrote the melody myself, and I don't think of myself as a good enough musician to kind of pigeonhole an era and write to it.”
“Perry Bible Fellowship has always transcended any kind of pigeonhole for itself.”
“Typically, the agent likes to "pigeonhole" an artist.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘pigeonhole’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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EN-HU - important words for a HU inte...
Words only (I left out the expressions) from Geza Kerenyi's EN-HU interpreters' dictionary. Most of them pose some difficulty when interpreted between HU and EN in either or both directions.
abalone, abrasive, abstractionist, abstruse, abysmal, academia, accessibility, accessible, acclimate, accolade, accompanist, achiever and 1469 more...
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NTDW2
yawp, amidships, smug, jounce, fallow, conscionable, polyp, whit, nouveau riche, palatial, encomiastic, exchequer and 182 more...
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In The Name Of All That Is Good And H...
Here you will find pieholes rather than piety. If you seek that which is holy, you must find the list In The Name Of All That Is Good And Holy... by uselessness.
piehole, doughnut hole, cakehole, the rabbit hole, hole in one, Swiss cheese, potatohole, three-hole punch, portable hole, hellhole, cholent, cholera and 89 more...
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Swine
For more aporkalyptic fun, see madmouth's Everything's better with a pig in it.
For "references to the Dursleys in Wizard People, Dear Reader, Brad Neely's cosmos-shattering voiceover ...swine, pig, hog, boar, pork, pork bellies, hog cholera, swineherd, pigsty, swine flu, oink, pig in a blanket and 188 more...
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WF - nominal compounds (figurative)
An extensive list I have been working on for quite some time. Feel free to add more of the kind if you miss any.
brainstorming, upside, downside, goldplating, bikeshedding, mudslinging, downgrading, headhunter, streamlining, mainstreaming, gerrymandering, frontloading and 503 more...
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Hence
Words with definitions that have a "hence" in them.
hanger, Deet, tripe, spindlelegs, fiddle, store, pluck, snap, villain, link, comedy, particular and 410 more...
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Mis-sung: a litany of mondegreens
Key words from those lyrics you get wrong, whether or not by accident.
Inspired by gangerh's squillow, tit squillow, tit squillow.
More inspiration at mondegreen - thanks plethora!under armed, ostriches, shepherds' socks, lady mondegreen, good mrs murphy, haffely gaffely, oh, four tuna, there's a bathroo..., halfway to a pair..., gladly, the cross..., the ants are my f..., dumb eyes and 15 more...
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Three is Compoundy.
Words that are made up of three words, be it intended for the meaning, or coincidentally (as in "attendance").
nonetheless, together, insofar, nevertheless, attendance, notwithstanding, hitherto, heretofore, whosoever, inasmuch, benjamin, psychotherapist and 40 more...
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My GRE
concomitant, mendacity, corollary, mandate, ascertain, exacerbate, substantiate, perennial, exemplify, hegemony, acrimonious, repertoire and 653 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Noah's Park
Hello, and Welcome™! Come and visit our most diverse land of our Animalesque™ adventures. Here at Noah's Park™ we have Virtually All You'd Ever Want To See™. An experience that is related to ani...
sheep's eyes, doe-eyed, cat-eyed, bug-eyed, cat's paw, black swan, leapfrog, menagerie, cold turkey, card shark, snail's pace, bull's eye and 362 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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my dictionary
able, abnormally, abroad, absent, abstract, acceptable, acceptance, access, accessible, accession, according to, account and 4551 more...
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Holes
judas, judas-hole, hole, creephole, pinhole, spy-eye, blowhole, breathing-hole, spiracle, touchhole, mouth, cakehole and 166 more...
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deegee's Words
pay-per-view, vitriol, delectable, snarky, unflinching, forsake, pervasive, inconsequential, unnerving, allure, endearing, unalloyed and 414 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for pigeonhole.

Nicoh I'm having trouble recognizing which is the meaning of this word in different contexts. I only recognize it when it means "to file". May 3, 2012
Prolagus Original lyrics:
You’re my picture on the wall
You’re my vision in the hall
You’re the one I’m talking to
When I get in from my work
For 5 months, I kept singing:
You’re my picture on the wall
You’re my pigeon in the hole. Apr 27, 2008