Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Alternative form of high-holder.

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He tells of the high-hole that repeatedly drills through the clapboards of an empty house in a vain attempt to find a thickness of wood deep enough in which to build its nest.

    The Other Animals 2010

  • The woodpeckers would be without home, food, and resting-place; except, possibly, the flicker, or high-hole, who is either a retrograde or a genius, whichever we may choose to consider him, and could live well enough upon ground ants.

    The Log of the Sun A Chronicle of Nature's Year William Beebe 1919

  • Hardly less ridiculous -- to our eyes -- is the elaborate performance of our most common woodpecker, the flicker, or high-hole.

    The Log of the Sun A Chronicle of Nature's Year William Beebe 1919

  • He tells of the high-hole that repeatedly drills through the clapboards of an empty house in

    The Other Animals 1910

  • Blue-bird, and darting swallow—nor forget the high-hole flashing his golden wings,

    Warble for Lilac-Time 1900

  • Another marked April note, proceeding sometimes from the meadows, but more frequently from the rough pastures and borders of the woods, is the call of the high-hole, or golden-shafted woodpecker.

    Birds and Poets : with Other Papers John Burroughs 1879

  • The high-hole is not so much a wood-pecker as he is

    Birds and Poets : with Other Papers John Burroughs 1879

  • The cuckoo comes for the tent-caterpillar, the jay for frozen apples, the ruffed grouse for buds, the crow foraging for birds 'eggs, the woodpecker and chickadees for their food, and the high-hole for ants.

    Winter Sunshine John Burroughs 1879

  • I believe all the woodpeckers are winter birds, except the high-hole or yellow-hammer, and he obtains the greater part of his subsistence from the ground, and is not a woodpecker at all in his habits of feeding.

    Birds and Poets : with Other Papers John Burroughs 1879

  • _ The notes of the ordinary downy and hairy woodpeckers suggest, in some way, the sound of a steel punch; but that of the high-hole is much softer, and strikes on the ear with real springtime melody.

    Birds and Poets : with Other Papers John Burroughs 1879

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