gopher hole
1
3.4
- noun
- /ˈɡoʊfər hoʊl/
- US
:
agujero de gopher
- We raised the stakes with danger, telling her the gopher holes in the sand draw were rattlesnake dens and the coyote prints around the pond were wolf tracks.
Examples
-
All the other frogs were holed up in the dirt, huddled in a moist crack or an abandoned gopher hole, waiting for the first rains of winter to wake them up.
Fiction book (1990) -
He'd be unlikely to put a foot down one of the gopher holes in the bluffs behind Jenny and Sam's house, or shy at barking dogs.
Fiction book (1993) -
See how he likes being stuck in a gopher hole.
Fiction book (1999) -
You knock a ball into a gopher hole. "You mean like pool?"
Blog text (17) -
She got her foot stuck in a gopher hole.
-
He can see a gopher hole about a mile off, and yet...
-
Did you stick your little heads out of your little gopher holes before you decided to "improve" a product that millions of people loved before yesterday?
Blog text (24) -
When the animals had quarreled until only the strongest were left, a strange people came out of the old deserted gopher holes.
Fiction book (2000) -
The windrower lurched left, and Joan raised the cutting bar to slide over what she knew was the unseen mound of a gopher hole under the dry alfalfa.
Fiction book (1997) -
Be careful where you step; there might be a gopher hole in the grass.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
An opening in something, often made by people or nature
How Deep
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a hole in the ground created by a gopher' is directly and transparently derived from combining 'gopher' (a burrowing rodent) with 'hole' (an opening). This simple noun+noun compound expresses a clear possession/location relation common across languages, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents would readily understand it.
Etymology
Gopher hole is the small hole a gopher digs as the entrance to its underground home. This simple image explains why the phrase means 'a hole in the ground'.