Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun An opening to admit or discharge air.
  • noun In founding, a fault in a casting, caused by a bubble of air which passes from the core outward, and is retained in the metal. Also called blow-hole.
  • noun A natural opening in the frozen surface of a river or pond, caused by currents or springs.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Zing-ha lay with him in the snow and watched -- Zing-ha, who later became the craftiest of hunters, and who, in the end, fell through an air-hole on the Yukon.

    THE LAW OF LIFE 2010

  • Zing-ha lay with him in the snow and watched -- Zing-ha, who later became the craftiest of hunters, and who, in the end, fell through an air-hole on the Yukon.

    THE LAW OF LIFE 2010

  • Now an air-hole ate into the ice, and ate and ate; or a fissure formed, and grew, and failed to freeze again.

    CHAPTER 23 2010

  • One man fell into an air-hole below Forty Mile; another was killed and eaten by his dogs; a third was crushed by a falling tree.

    THE MAN ON THE OTHER BANK 2010

  • Compared to power-grab of our current presidential air-hole, Bush was a piker.

    Barack Obama Will Decide Who Can Visit You In The Hospital | RedState 2010

  • The top of the shapeless bay into which this door shut was masked by a narrow scantling in the centre of which a triangular hole had been sawed, which served both as wicket and air-hole when the door was closed.

    Les Miserables 2008

  • The light of the air-hole died out ten or twelve paces from the point where Jean Valjean stood, and barely cast a wan pallor on a few metres of the damp walls of the sewer.

    Les Miserables 2008

  • When he had turned the angle of the gallery, the distant glimmer of an air-hole disappeared, the curtain of obscurity fell upon him once more, and he became blind again.

    Les Miserables 2008

  • Jean Valjean read these four lines by the light of the air-hole, and remained for a moment as though absorbed in thought, repeating in a low tone: “Rue des Filles-du-Calvaire, number 6, Monsieur Gillenormand.”

    Les Miserables 2008

  • Four whitewashed walls, a door opposite the altar, two small arched windows; over the door a large wooden crucifix, below the crucifix a square air-hole stopped up with a bundle of hay; on the ground, in one corner, an old window-frame with the glass all broken to pieces — such is the chapel.

    Les Miserables 2008

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