| 释义 |
▪ I. ˈrat-hole, n.
[rat n.1 7.]
1. A hole used by a rat for passage or abode. Also fig., a cramped or squalid building, room, or the like; a refuge or hiding-place. Also attrib.
1812H. & J. Smith Rej. Addr., Hampsh. Farmer's Addr. (1833) 32 Who routed you from a rat-hole..to perch you in a palace? 1879O. W. Holmes Motley xviii. 129 The police set on the track of the writer to find his rathole if possible. 1879[see junk-shop s.v. junk n.2 5]. 1912Dialect Notes III. 581 He wouldn't know enough to pound sand in a rat-hole; so don't get him. 1922D. H. Lawrence Let. 30 Apr. (1962) II. 701 Yet I don't believe in Buddha—hate him in fact—his rat-hole temples and his rat-hole religion. 1941M. U. Schappes Let. 21 July in Lett. from Tombs (1941) 85 The rat-hole: a hotel where state's-witnesses are kept! a1944K. Douglas Alamein to Zem Zem (1946) 133 We stayed in our positions, like a terrier at a rat-hole. 1976‘B. Shelby’ Great Pebble Affair 164 The warehouse is..a dummy warehouse designed to mask our rathole. 1976N. Thornburg Cutter & Bone iii. 80 Mo was not just frigid,..she was dead, a cadaver with a welded womb and a cunt like a rathole, full of dust and bits of straw and feathers from old nests.
2. Oil Industry.
a. A shallow hole drilled near a well hole to accommodate the kelly or a pipe joint when it is not in use.
b. A hole of smaller diameter drilled at the bottom of a larger hole.
1921W. H. Jeffery Deep Well Drilling v. 209 Some rotary drillers drill a shallow well at a point midway and in front of the slush pumps, in which they rest the drill stem when not in use or when waiting to set in another joint of drill pipe. This is termed the ‘rat hole’. 1939D. Hager Fund. Petroleum Industry ix. 210 When the kelly is deep enough for a joint of drill stem, the kelly and bit are pulled out. The kelly is set to one side, fitting in a hole (the ‘rat⁓hole’) cut in the floor of the derrick. 1972L. M. Harris Introd. Deepwater Floating Drilling Operations xvi. 164 During and immediately following the unloading of the water cushion and the rathole mud, the surface pressure is determined by the amount of fluid to be unloaded. 1975G. Anderson Coring v. 89 Most diamond coring is now done in the full diameter of the borehole. Whether coring is done this way or in a rat hole depends on the full gauge-keeping ability of the rock bits used prior to initiating the coring operation.
3. N. Amer. A seemingly bottomless hole; used fig. or allusively of something that demands excessive expenditure.
1961in Webster. 1975D. Lambro Federal Rathole vi. 43 The contractor was refused..additional loan money because..it would be ‘pouring money down a rathole’. 1976Globe & Mail (Toronto) 21 Dec. 7/1 The committee will examine..Minaki Lodge, the rathole in northwestern Ontario down which increasing quantities of public money seem to be disappearing. 1977Time 19 Dec. 13/2 Since the B-1 bomber will not be part of our military inventory, to build two more airplanes would simply amount to pouring half a billion dollars down a rathole.
▪ II. ˈrat-hole, v.
[f. prec.]
1. intr. and trans. Oil Industry. To drill a hole of smaller diameter at the bottom of (one of larger diameter).
1922L. C. Sands in D. T. Day Handbk. Petroleum Industry 268 If the oil stratum should inadvertently be penetrated before the casing has been set and all water excluded from overlying formations, it will be expensive, if not impossible, to make a successful producer of the well. To forestall this danger it is common practice to ‘rat-hole’ ahead at intervals. 1939D. Hager Fund. Petroleum Industry ix. 228 If the sand is expected, the hole can be reduced and ‘ratholed’ ahead, a smaller hole being drilled.
2. To hide or store; not to invest or spend (money).
1948Amer. Speech XXII. 220 Stashing was overt and frequently a co-operative enterprise, whereas to rat-hole implied that an individual was storing something of possibly public property for his own use. 1971Wall St. Jrnl. 17 June 1/5 Everyone ratholed their money last year. Then they saw the (economic) situation hasn't changed so they decided if they're going to buy, now's the time to do it. 1977New Yorker 4 July 55/1 Speaker said he was ‘ratholing’ the Jif jar. He was not ready to pay the Internal Revenue Service any portion of the gold's value (his privilege until it is sold). |