sinkhole

See also: sink hole, and sink-hole

English

Alternative forms

• sink hole, sink-hole

Etymology

From Middle English sinkehole, sinkeholl, equivalent to sink +‎ hole.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

sinkhole (plural sinkholes)

sinkhole

1. (geology) A hole formed in soluble rock by the action of water, serving to conduct surface water to an underground passage.

   Synonyms: cenote, doline, dolina, (Britain) kettle hole, shakehole, (Britain) sink, (Britain) swallet, swallow hole

   • 2021 September 22, “Network News: Sinking feeling on unlucky 13th”, in RAIL, number 940, page 18:

     A sinkhole suddenly opened up beneath the track of a heavy freight route in the eastern United States. Golfers playing the 13th hole at Hartford, Connecticut, had a new obstacle to tackle: a section of track suspended in mid-air after heavy rainfall in the aftermath of Storm Ida.

2. A depressed area in which waste or drainage collects.
3. (pinball) A hole in the playfield that rewards the player when the ball is guided into it.
   • 1997, Windows magazine, volume 8, numbers 1-3:

     Pro Pinball is as authentic as pinball has ever been on the PC. It's all here, from the ramps, bumpers and sinkholes to the satisfying "clack" when you make the high-score list.

4. (Internet) A domain name server that has been configured to hand out non-routeable addresses for all domains, so that every computer that uses it will fail to get access to the real website.
5. (computer security) An attack which redirects requests, whether network or memory accesses, to a new location defined by the attacker.

Translations

geology: hole formed in soluble rock

• Arabic: بالوعة f (bālūʕa), بلاعة f (ballāʕa), بلوعة f (ballūʕa)
• Armenian: please add this translation if you can
• Basque: please add this translation if you can
• Catalan: dolina f, bòfia (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 天坑 (zh) (tiānkēng), 沉洞 (chéndòng)

• Dutch: zinkgat (nl) n
• Esperanto: dolino
• Finnish: karstivajoama, vajoama, doliini (fi), suppa (fi), sortumakaivo
• French: doline (fr) f, gouffre (fr) m
• German: Doline (de) f, Senkloch n, Sinkloch n, Erdfall m, Schwinde f, Flussschwinde f, Schwalgloch n, Schluckloch n
• Greek: καταβοθρα (katavothra)
• Hebrew: בולען (he) m (bol'án)
• Irish: súmaire m, poll slogaide m, slogaide f, cíocra f
• Italian: dolina (it) f, pulo m
• Korean: 싱크홀 (singkeuhol), 땅꺼짐 (ttangkkeojim), 돌리네 (dolline)
• Latvian: please add this translation if you can
• Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
• Macedonian: по́нор m (pónor), вр́тача f (vŕtača)
• Maori: tomo
• Norman: dalot m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: jordfallshull (no) n, synkehull n

• Polish: lej krasowy (pl) m, lejek krasowy m, werteb krasowy m, wertep krasowy m
• Portuguese: dolina (pt) f
• Romanian: dolină (ro) f
• Russian: ка́рстовая воро́нка (ru) f (kárstovaja vorónka), дья́волова дыра́ f (dʹjávolova dyrá)
• Serbo-Croatian: vrtača (sh) f
• Slovene: kraška dolina f
• Spanish: torca (es) f, dolina (es) f, cenote (es) m
• Swedish: slukhål n, sänka (sv) c
• Thai: หลุมยุบ (lǔm-yúp)
• Turkish: düden (tr), obruk (tr)
• Vietnamese: hố sụt
• Welsh: llyncdwll m

depressed area in which water collects

• Arabic: بَالُوعَة f (bālūʕa), بَلَّاعَة f (ballāʕa)
• Catalan: desguàs (ca) m, eixidiu m, desaigüe (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: vajoama, kuoppa (fi)
• Galician: broque m, fochanca (gl) f, loio m, groba f, fanigoto m
• German: Senkloch n, Sinkloch n, Ablauf (de) m, Abfluss (de) m
• Maori: whāwhārua
• Russian: выгребна́я я́ма f (vygrebnája jáma)
• Spanish: desagüe (es) m
• Turkish: düden (tr)

Verb

sinkhole (third-person singular simple present sinkholes, present participle sinkholing, simple past and past participle sinkholed)

1. (Internet, transitive) To configure as a sinkhole (domain name server that gives non-routeable addresses).

References

• “sinkhole”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.