shot hole
1
8.6
- noun
- /ʃɑt hoʊl/
- Specialized
- Before the blasting began, they carefully measured the depth of each shot hole.
Examples
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The workers drilled a shot hole in the granite to prepare for the explosion.
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The construction crew inspected the shot holes to ensure they were properly placed for safety.
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Or shot holes in it.
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"Did you see the shot hole on the side of the road when you drove up?" he said calmly.
Blog text (27)
Synonyms
6
4.4
A hole made with a drill to take samples or put instruments into rock
3
6.8
A narrow hole drilled into the ground to find water or minerals
Surface Forms
Morphology
There is a visible link between 'shot' (relating to firing/explosive discharge) and 'hole' (an opening), so a learner might infer a hole connected to shooting or blasting, but the precise technical sense — a drilled bore to receive an explosive charge in mining/blasting — is specialized and not directly predictable from the everyday meanings. Because the meaning requires domain-specific knowledge rather than simple compositional inference, it is only partially transparent to a B1 learner.
Etymology
The compound noun shot hole comes from the simple image of workers drilling a hole in rock and placing a small explosive shot into it before a blast. So it means a drilled hole made to hold an explosive charge for blasting.