murder-hole
murder-hole noun: a deep pit used for drowning malefactors as a punishment. Also the alternative form of murder hole.
Noun
murder-hole (plural murder-holes)
- A deep pit used for drowning malefactors as a punishment.
- The pits were of the kind which have become known as murder-holes, for the reason already explained that they were used by the barons, who had power of pit and gallows, to punish malefactors summarily.1877, Charles Gibbon, In Love and War: A Romance - Volume 1, page 294
- Some of the murder-holes or pits, are said to be eighty feet deep, from which human bones have been brought forth, and their origin has been referred to the feudal grants, which were conferred on so many barons, of having and using " pit and gallows."1884, Alexander W. M. Clark Kennedy, Robert the Bruce: A Poem, Historical and Romantic, page 222
Also used as
murder-hole is also the alternative form of murder hole.
Forms of murder-hole
| plural | murder-holes |
|---|
Questions about murder-hole
- What does murder-hole mean?
- Murder-hole means a deep pit used for drowning malefactors as a punishment.
- What part of speech is murder-hole?
- Murder-hole is a noun.
- What is the plural of murder-hole?
- The plural of murder-hole is murder-holes.
Words near murder-hole in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: murder-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.
Last updated:
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