From dialectalpot(“pit, hollow, cavity”) +hole. The "cave" senses, attested since at least 1809 (aspot-hole), may be fromMiddle Englishpot,potte(“a deep hole for a mine, or from peat-digging”), of uncertain origin; perhaps related toEnglishpit,pote, orpot. CompareScotspott,patt(“a pit dug in the ground; coalpit”).
A shallow pit or other edged depression in aroad's surface, especially when caused byerosion by weather ortraffic.
2005, Paul Carter,Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page86:
I was so tired thatpotholes, fumes and noise aside, I slept regardless, my head rag-dolling from side to side.
2022 February 9, “Network News: Prime Minister "blew nearly £1m" on Northern Ireland bridge study”, inRAIL, number950, page20:
Labour's Shadow Transport Secretary Louise Haigh said: "There is a cost-of-living crisis, and the Prime Minister blew nearly £1m of public money on an utterly infeasible vanity project. That's enough to fill 18,000potholes. This shows the Tories' sheer disrespect for public money."
2002, May-June,Grand River Conservation Authority (Canada) Newsletter
The earliest ideas on the creation ofpotholes are that they were associated with "moulins de glacier" (glacier mills) formed where surface streams on glaciers and ice sheets fall into holes in the ice. Water entering these surficial holes was believed to impact on the bedrock beneath creating a largepothole. The "Moulin Hypothesis", first suggested in 1874, continued to be accepted by many authors until the 1950s. However, commencing in the 1930s, other authors have suggested dissatisfaction with the moulin hypothesis, largely on the grounds that it failed to explain how ice could remain stable long enough for the "giant"potholes to form and why manypotholes (like those at Rockwood) were present in large numbers.
A hole or recess on the top of a stove into which a pot may be placed.
1984,Stoves and trees: how much wood would a woodstove save if a woodstove could save wood?:
Stoves with two or morepotholes The normal single-pot stove in which the pot sits on top, rather than being sunk into thepothole, has a major limitation.
