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Chambers (1908)

Hole

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This edition’s origin note

[A.S. hol, a hole, cavern; Dut. hol, Dan. hul, Ger. hohl, hollow; conn. with Gr. koilos, hollow.]

Original source wording, not an independently verified *SET-U conclusion.

The complete extracted entry

e-38538-4324

Historical source text, not a reviewed *SET-U analysis. Claims and terminology belong to this edition.

Hole, hōl, n. a hollow place: a cavity: an opening in a solid body: a pit: a subterfuge: a means of escape: a difficult situation: a scrape: a place of hiding, a mean lodging, a secret room for some disreputable business: (golf) one of the holes, 4 in. in diameter, into which the ball is played, also the distance between any two holes.—v.t. to form holes in: to drive into a hole.—v.i. to go into a hole.—adj. Hole′-and-cor′ner, secret: underhand.—ns. Hōling-axe, a narrow axe for cutting holes in posts; Hōling-pick, a pick used in under-cutting coal.—A hole in one's coat, a stain on a person's reputation; Put a person in a hole, to put him in a position from which he cannot easily extricate himself; Toad in the hole, meat baked in batter, &c. [A.S. hol, a hole, cavern; Dut. hol, Dan. hul, Ger. hohl, hollow; conn. with Gr. koilos, hollow.]

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  • Historical scholarship from 1908; not current consensus or editorial verification.
  • Historical text may contain offensive, obsolete or inaccurate language and classifications.
  • Public-domain determination applies to the United States; other jurisdictions require separate confirmation.
  • Chambers consulted earlier dictionaries including Skeat and the New English Dictionary; overlapping claims are not independent scholarly votes.

An old root, gloss or concordance number does not determine the meaning of every later use. A word’s origin and its modern meaning are different questions.

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Edition, rights and traceability

Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

Publisher marks these historical texts public domain in the USA. Transformed book text excludes Gutenberg branding; source attribution is a bibliographic acknowledgment. No non-US public-domain determination is made.

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