hole up

as in to hide
to remain out of sight we'll hole up in the cellar and wait out the hurricane

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Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of hole up Away from a filthy Superdome and Convention Center where they had been holed up for days. Suzette Hackney, USA Today, 5 Sep. 2025 McCartney is seen in this footage, holed up on a remote farm in Scotland with his wife Linda and their kids along with some sheep and horses. Caleb Hammond, IndieWire, 4 Sep. 2025 But officers never tried to open the doors to where the shooter was holed up with his victims, dead and alive, until the final breach, instead waiting for keys or tools to break in. Matthew J. Friedman, CNN Money, 4 Sep. 2025 Quick and decisive in the middle of the Pondo defense, the 5-foot-11, 190-pound senior has the power to shed blockers and plug holes up front, and the speed to track down ball-carriers on the edge. Matt Schubert, Denver Post, 18 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for hole up
Recent Examples of Synonyms for hole up
Verb
  • The most notorious, in 1978, saw the late queen hide behind a bush in the gardens of Buckingham Palace to avoid Nicolae Ceaușescu, having already removed anything that the Romanian dictator could steal from his room following a warning from Giscard d'Estaing, the then French president.
    Ian King, CNBC, 17 Sep. 2025
  • Other newborns were given away by their grandparents who conspired with doctors, priests and nuns to hide a daughter’s socially embarrassing pregnancy.
    Rafael Romo, CNN Money, 16 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • This quiz invites you to explore the darker corners of sci-fi literature, where monsters lurk not just in shadows, but in laboratories, alien worlds and post-apocalyptic wastelands.
    Kenna Hughes-Castleberry, Space.com, 16 Sep. 2025
  • Plus, a predatory stranger lurking on Roblox can’t DM their child on a landline.
    Stephanie Ganz, Parents, 15 Sep. 2025
Verb
  • The truth of conservatism lies elsewhere, in the unshakeable principles that the dispensable litany of professed ideals protects.
    Allan J. Lichtman, MSNBC Newsweek, 18 Sep. 2025
  • Mullin claimed that the recording proved that Monarez was lying about her exchange with Kennedy.
    Beth Mole, ArsTechnica, 17 Sep. 2025

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Cite this Entry

“Hole up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/hole%20up. Accessed 20 Sep. 2025.

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