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pothole

The English word “pothole” has 7 meanings listed here.

noun

  1. A shallow pit or other edged depression in a road's surface, especially when caused by erosion, weather or traffic.
  2. A pit formed in the bed of a turbulent stream.
  3. A vertical cave system, often found in limestone.
  4. A pit resulting from unauthorized excavation by treasure-hunters or vandals.
  5. A shallow hole dug for the purpose of prospecting for opal or gold.
  6. A hyperlink with text displayed on a page that is different from the title of the page to which the text links; a piped link.
  7. A hole or recess on the top of a stove into which a pot may be placed.

Etymology

From dialectal pot (“pit, hollow, cavity”) + hole. The "cave" senses, attested since at least 1809 (as pot-hole), may be from Middle English pot, potte (“a deep hole for a mine, or from peat-digging”), of uncertain origin; perhaps related to English pit, pote, or pot. Compare Scots pott, patt (“a pit dug in the ground; coalpit”).

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.