Word.ws English Dictionary

in the hole

in the hole prepositional phrase: having suffered net losses; in debt.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Having suffered net losses; in debt.
    • Further testimony to his commercial incompetence lay in the fact that, at fifty cents a copy, a complete sellout would have left him worse than $300 in the hole—proof enough, if proof was needed, that it wasn't primarily money he was after; it was fame.1993, Shelby Foote, introduction to Stephen Crane, The Red Badge of Courage, The Modern Library (1993), unnumbered pages
    • Finance Director Robert Law added that even if Camden laid off all of its civilian employees, it would still be millions in the hole.1999 June 18, Dwight Ott, “A Share Of Bridge Tolls For Camden?”, in Philadelphia Inquirer
  2. (stud poker) Of a card ("the hole card") which is dealt face down and thus unknown to all but its holder; hence (idiomatic) in reserve; in particular ace in the hole.
    Synonyms:
    in the red

Synonyms of in the hole

Antonyms

Questions about in the hole

What does in the hole mean?
In the hole means having suffered net losses; in debt.
What part of speech is in the hole?
In the hole is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in the hole in the dictionary

  1. in the hand
  2. in the hands of
  3. in the heat of the moment
  4. in the hell
  5. in the here and now
  6. in the hole
  7. in the hope of
  8. in the hope that
  9. in the hopper
  10. in the hospital
  11. in the hot seat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the hole (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-in the hole.ogg, En-us-in the hole.oga.

Cite this entry: “in the hole.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/in_the_hole. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.