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foxhole

nounC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,511 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: foxholes

A foxhole is a small pit one or two soldiers fight from. Dig a foxhole, in the foxhole, a foxhole position.

It is dug fast for cover under fire and is a defended position rather than a shelter — a slit trench is the British equivalent term. There are no atheists in foxholes is a well-known claim and a much-disputed one. Note foxhole radio, an improvised receiver made from scrap; and that the word literally means a fox's burrow, which is what the shape suggests.

Definitions of foxhole

  1. 1nounfoxholeA small pit one or two soldiers fight from.C1

    “The foxhole holds about two people and nine hours.”

foxhole is a defensive pit.

Where it comes from

Old English foxhol is fox plus hole, and it meant a fox's burrow for about a thousand years before the military sense appeared in the First World War.

  1. Old English

    foxhol

  2. Middle English

    foxhol

  3. English, today

    foxhole

From Middle English foxhol, from Old English foxhol, equivalent to fox + hole.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Military & Defence

Practise this word

foxhole in the wild

  • "There are no atheists in foxholes" is an aphorism used to suggest that times of extreme stress or fear can prompt belief in a higher power.

    There are no atheists in foxholes

  • In the context of actual warfare, such a sudden change in belief has been called a foxhole conversion.

    There are no atheists in foxholes

  • A foxhole radio is a makeshift radio that was built by soldiers in World War II for entertainment, to listen to local radio stations.

    Foxhole radio

  • The foxhole radio, like a mineral-crystal radio receiver, had no power source other than that of the transmission.

    Foxhole radio

  • The name Fuchskaute ("foxhole") refers to a place where the fox (Fuchs) had its den (Kaute).

    Fuchskaute

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.