black hole
17
5.5
- noun
- /blæk hoʊl/
:
agujero negro
- Iran's support for Syria seems to have become a 'black hole' in terms of Western information provision.
Who's stuck in a black hole right now?
- Who's stuck in a black hole right now?
- So we talk about a black hole, a fiscal black hole.
- Jack and Aaron suck it up like a black hole.
- All right, I mean, all right, let's crawl out of this desperate black hole.
- It's it's, it's, it's like a black hole of whiteness.
Examples
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This measure, if carried through, will create a black hole in the budget.
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I need more success, more income, more wealth, a bigger house, bigger car, bigger this," because that's just an endless black hole.
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So think of a black hole as the ultimate prison.
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So we talk about a black hole, a fiscal black hole.
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In a world of contracting demand, will this strategy be a black hole for China?
Blog text (13) -
The worst part is the black hole will spread until it swallows up Summerton.
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The project turned into a black hole that absorbed all our resources without delivering any results.
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Her constant complaints created a black hole of negativity that drained everyone's energy.
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The renovation costs became a black hole where all our savings seemed to vanish.
Synonyms
3
6.3
A situation that always needs more money or help
How Consuming
17
5.5
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The figurative sense draws directly on the literal image of a dark opening that swallows everything and returns nothing, so a learner who knows 'black' and 'hole' can plausibly infer that it denotes something that consumes resources or attention. However, the extension from a physical cavity to abstract consumption is metaphorical rather than strictly compositional, so the meaning is predictable but not fully literal.
Etymology
Black hole is also used for a situation or thing that acts like that space hole: a very black hole that keeps swallowing time, money, or energy. So calling something a 'black hole' means it takes everything and gives nothing back.