drinking hole
- noun
- /ˈdrɪŋkɪŋ hoʊl/
- Informal
:
bar
- He might even go to the local bar or pub or drinking hole, keep his ear to the ground, see if there's any hotties sitting at the bar.
He might even go to the local bar or pub or drinking hole, keep his ear to the ground, see if there's any hotties sitting at the bar.
- He might even go to the local bar or pub or drinking hole, keep his ear to the ground, see if there's any hotties sitting at the bar.
Examples
-
After work, we often meet at our favorite drinking hole to unwind and catch up.
-
A seedy Houston drinking hole.
Fiction book (1998) -
This neighborhood is known for its lively drinking holes that attract a friendly crowd.
-
On Friday nights, the local drinking hole fills up quickly with regulars enjoying happy hour.
Synonyms
111
3.5
A place where people drink alcoholic drinks and often eat, like a bar
75
5.8
A place where people drink alcohol and talk
16
3.4
A bar or pub where people meet to drink and talk
14
4.0
A room where people drink alcohol at a counter
1
3.4
A bar where local people meet to drink and talk
How Casual
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a casual bar or pub' is directly derivable from combining 'drinking' (consumption of alcohol) with 'hole' as a colloquial term for a place (as in 'hole in the wall'), so a learner can infer it denotes a place where people drink. The phrase is informal but follows a transparent composition pattern (place for X) that is cross-linguistically common, making it understandable to a B1 learner who knows the constituents.
Etymology
The noun drinking hole may come from the image of animals gathering at a 'watering hole' to drink. Because hole was used to mean a small spot or place, drinking hole came to mean a casual 'bar' or 'pub' where people meet to drink.