waterholen.
/ˈwɔːtəhəʊl/, U.S. /ˈwɔdərˌhoʊl/, /ˈwɑdərˌhoʊl/ 1. † b. A cavity in the bed of a river. Obsolete.
a. A hollow or depression in which water collects; a pond or pool. Also: a hole dug in the ground for collecting water (esp. drinking water); a hole made in the frozen surface of a lake, or other body of water, for collecting water or fishing.
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the world > the earth > water > body of water > place where animals obtain water > [noun] > water-hole
pitOE
watering1564
watering place1570
waterhole1653
sand-hole1897
1653 E. Manlove Liberties & Customes Lead-mines Derby 8 Water-holes, Wind-holes, Veyns, Coe-shafts and Woughs.
1679 in J. A. Picton City of Liverpool: Select. Munic. Rec. (1883) I. 315 Wee order that..two dangerous water holes close by the foote waye neere Richard Jones house on the heath, bee filled upp.
a1774 R. Fergusson Poems (1785) 178 O' three shillings Scottish souk him, Or in the water-hole sair douk him.
1817 J. Oxley Jrnl. 6 Aug. in Jrnls. Two Exped. New S. Wales (1820) i. 154 At the eighth mile we came upon a small water-hole, which our poor horses soon emptied.
1827 P. P. King Narr. Surv. Intertropical & Western Coasts Austral. I. i. 13 Our water-holes..dug at the edge of the sand, within thirty yards of the vessel.
1875 Spectator (Melbourne) 20 June 94/1 A bottomless waterhole, about 300 feet wide, exists at Maryvale homestead, Gipps Land.
1883 F. Schwatka in A. M. Mayer Sport Gun & Rod Amer. Woods 313 If the debris be too freely chopped it becomes reduced to a sort of ice-dust, which will pack in..toward the finishing of the water-hole.
1903 R. Kipling Five Nations 57 Tracked me by the camps I'd quitted, used the water-holes I'd hollowed.
1975 G. Blainey Triumph of Nomads 178 The aboriginals here came to rely on small waterholes in the great granite outcrops and soaks which yielded a little shallow water.
2004 Earth Island Jrnl. Autumn 37/3 Desert waterholes known as tinajas.
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the world > the earth > water > rivers and streams > system > [noun] > pool as part of
weelc897
poolOE
dub1535
linn1577
potc1650
waterhole1688
plumbc1780
swimming hole1867
black hole1869
water pit1881
swilly-hole1890
swim-hole1924
the world > the earth > land > landscape > low land > hollow or depression > [noun] > containing water
pan1494
peat pota1500
waterhole1688
basin1712
tinaja1835
swag1848
water pocket1863
rock hole1869
1688 R. Holme Acad. Armory iii. iii. 104/1 Grope, or Tickle; is a kind of Fishing by Diving under Water, or in shallow Waters where Fish is seen, by putting ones hand into the water holes, where Fish lieth.
1892 J. Roy Helen Treveryan xxxiii. 320 The road lay for miles along the bed of a shallow stream..the horses floundering badly at times among the boulders and water-holes.
1893 Cornhill Mag. Nov. 502 All the fish without exception have congregated in the deepest and most shady water holes they could find, under overhanging boughs of trees.
c. Esp. in countries with hot, dry seasons: a section of a river which retains water when its course runs dry.
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1843 R. D. Murray Summer at Port Phillip 119 It is rare to find the channel of one of these streams without some portion of its contents remaining in those deep pools of water that occur at greater or less intervals in its course, and in colonial phrase are termed ‘water-holes’.
1890 Gold-fields of Victoria: Rep. Mining Registrars Quarter ended 31 Dec. 1889 26 The dry weather we experienced lately has reduced Boggy Creek to a mere string of water-holes.
1910 A. R. Dugmore Camera Adventures Afr. Wilds ii. 18 We reached the Olgerei River, and pitched our camp near a filthy water hole, for the river bed was nothing but dry sand.
1936 W. C. Holden et al. Stud. Yaqui Indians ix. 118 The Yaqui Indians have been left during most of the year with only a few scattered water-holes in their wide river-bed.
2002 L. Hunter et al. Watching Wildlife: Southern Afr. 144/3 Wildlife is difficult to see here but during winter when the Orange River dwindles to a few waterholes is the best time.
2. Nautical. A hole made in a sail which allows water to escape. Now historical.
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society > travel > travel by water > vessel, ship, or boat > parts of vessels > other parts of body of vessel > [noun] > opening in side of vessel > opening to allow escape of water
scupper1592
scupper-hole1599
slopper1622
waterhole1794
water port1865
freeing port1875
1794 D. Steel Elements & Pract. Rigging & Seamanship I. 117 Spritsail Course...A water-hole, from 4 to 6 inches diameter, is made in the second cloth from each leech, near the foot.
1808 D. Lever Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor 58 As this Sail..is liable to be immersed in the Water, there is a Hole..called a Water-hole, cut and stitched round in each Side, to let the Water off.
1846 Hilpert's Englisch-Deutsches u. Deutsch-Englisches Wörterbuch II. 178/2 Die Augen der Blinde, the eyes or water-holes of the sprit-sail of a ship.
1984 J. Harland Seamanship in Age of Sail 79 (caption) The water holes in the foot of the sail show here, and the bonnet latched under the staysail.
2003 K. H. Marquardt Global Schooner vi. 188/1 Every sail was provided with a certain number of holes. They were marling-, reef-, head-, leech- and waterholes.
3. Astronomy. A quiet part of the radio spectrum between 1420 MHz (wavelength 21 cm, at which hydrogen atoms radiate) and about 1660 MHz (wavelength 18 cm, at which hydroxyl radicals radiate). So called because hydrogen (H) and hydroxyl (OH) are the constituents of water, H2O.
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1971 Project Cyclops (NASA CR 114445) vi. 64/2 The band lying between the resonances of the disassociation products of water is ideally situated and an uncannily poetic place for water-based life to seek its kind. Where shall we meet? At the water hole, of course!]
1971 Project Cyclops (NASA CR 114445) vii. 70/1 The proposed instantaneous bandwidth of the receivers is 100 GHz... Further study might permit this specification to be broadened to 150 or even 200GHz. This would allow searching the entire spectrum of the ‘water hole’.
1979 Daily Tel. 10 Nov. 11/1 Scientists have argued that..the radio water-hole will be the most logical communications medium for intelligences across the universe.
2012 L. Golden Lab. Exper. Physics for Mod. Astron. 435 (caption) Non-thermal radiation and the emission from water vapor and oxygen in the atmosphere are weak in the..‘water hole’ region.
Derivatives
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the world > food and drink > farming > cultivation or tillage > cultivation of plants or crops > cultivation of specific crops > [noun] > coffee > specific process
waterholing1870
1870 W. Sabonadière Coffee Planter of Ceylon (ed. 2) 61 The cost of loosening or renovating the soil with the fork is about the same as waterholing [1866 open trenching].
1880 Spons' Encycl. Industr. Arts II. 698 A third operation is called ‘trenching’, or ‘waterholing’. The trenches are made across the slope, and may be either open or closed.
1896 Central Afr. Planter May 172/1 Some manures render dormant plant food active, and under this head must be classed such operations as water holing, trenching, etc.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, September 2015; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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