doghole
/ˈdɔɡˌhoʊl/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
7
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A small, shallow bay or inlet, usually surrounded by high cliffs, that is accessible only by smaller boats.
noun
A type of small schooner designed in the 19th century to navigate in shallow waters and to conduct coastal shipping in and out of doghole ports.
noun
A mine worked by fewer than fifteen miners, which is small enough that some safety laws do not apply.
Slang
noun
A mine worked by fewer than fifteen miners, which is small enough that some safety laws do not apply.
Slang
noun
A tiny, uncomfortable hole or cell, usually too small to stand in, in which prisoners are confined as punishment.
Example Sentences
- "But, cou’d you be content to bid adieu / To the dear Play-houſe, and the Players too, / Sweet Country Seats are purchas’d ev’ry where, / With Lands and Gardens, at leſs price, than here / You hire a darkſom Doghole by the year."
- "This is the first time I was ever weary of England, and longed to be in Ireland, but it is because go I must; for I do not love Ireland better, nor England, as England, worse; in short, you all live in a wretched, dirty Doghole and Prison, but it is a Place good enough to die in."
- "I am proud to welcome you to my house, though 'tis but a doghole, may it please your Grace, a mere doghole."
- "Nice was then no glamorous watering hole but a 'doghole' – 'the most doghole I think that be in world', so Mason wrote to Pate."
- "Not always this forbidding, some doghole ports like New Haven had safe handling records and managed to load 185 consecutive ships without an incident until the 130 ton Adelaide hit the rocks when a mooring chain broke."
- "Ft . Ross was a popular doghole, but its anchorage was discovered much earlier."
Etymology
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: doghole
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈdɔɡˌhoʊl/
- British English: /ˈdɒɡhəʊl/