hole up

English

Etymology

From hole +‎ up. Attested from the 19th century.

Verb

hole up (third-person singular simple present holes up, present participle holing up, simple past and past participle holed up)

1. (intransitive) To go into a hole, to shelter in a hole.
   • 1998, John Whitaker, William Hamilton, Mammals of the Eastern United States‎^[1], page 424:

     In the Upper Peninsula of Michigan bears enter winter dens in October; in the South, later; even in Florida bears “hole up” during the coldest weather.

2. (originally US, intransitive) To hide.

   The guerrillas holed up in a small cave.

   • 2005, BBC News, Thursday, 27 January, 2005, 18:50 GMT[2]:

     The battle ended a two-day siege of an apartment block, where the suspects were holed up.

References

• “hole, v.¹.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.

Anagrams

• uphole