bolthole

nounC1Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechToo rare in one of the two pools to compare — fewer than 20 uses in speech or in writing

A bolthole is a place you can escape to. A country bolthole, a useful bolthole, retreat to the bolthole.

It is often a second home in estate agents' language and a hiding place in everybody else's. The image is a rabbit's escape burrow, which is where the word begins.

Definitions of bolthole

1nounboltholeA place you can escape to.C1
“They bought a little cottage in Cornwall as a bolthole from the noise of London.”

bolthole is a refuge.

Where it comes from

Bolt plus hole, from the escape burrow a rabbit bolts down.

From bolt + hole.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

← Vocabulary