foxhole

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See also: fox hole

English

Soldier and fox in foxhole.
Soldier and fox in foxhole.

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Middle English foxhol, from Old English foxhol, equivalent to fox +‎ hole.

Pronunciation

This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA or enPR then please add some!

Noun

foxhole (plural foxholes)

  1. The burrow in the ground where a fox lives.
  2. (military) A small pit dug into the ground as a shelter for protection against enemy fire.
    • 1962, Hoxie Neale Fairchild, Religious Trends in English Poetry: 1880-1920: Gods of a Changing Poetry, Columbia University Press, page 378:
      The statement made during the Second World War that “there are no atheists in foxholes” is absurd. Foxholes teem with atheists—who, to be sure, frequently infringe the Third Commandment in their desperation.
    • 2019 February 27, Drachinifel, 36:27 from the start, in The Battle of Samar - Odds? What are those?‎, archived from the original on 3 November 2022:
      Four pilots from the St. Lo, returning from a strike, land at the Dulag Airstrip and are promptly handed carbines, given a foxhole, and told to help repel a Japanese infantry counterattack. With that job done, with the aid of some stacked boxes and buckets full of petrol, they rearm and repair their aircraft, and then head back out to land on other ships.

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

foxhole (third-person singular simple present foxholes, present participle foxholing, simple past and past participle foxholed)

  1. (transitive) To dig a military foxhole into, or convert into a foxhole by digging.
    • 1985, Luther H. Wolff, Forward surgeon: the diary of Luther H. Wolff, M.D., page 70:
      Trogh and Charlie have started foxholing one corner of our tent, and I helped them a little.
    • 1988, Samuel Lyman Atwood Marshall, A. L. Marshall, Ambush: The Battle of Dau Tieng, page 43:
      The line was not foxholed in. This is one weakness of the Nungs. They resent digging and so they do not carry entrenching tools into the field.
  2. (transitive) To drive into a military foxhole.
    • 2015, Teri Quatman, Essential Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: An Acquired Art:
      the vet recalled with terrible anguish a scene where he and his friend had been foxholed several dozen yards apart, with a small group of enemy soldiers (Viet Cong) coming toward them over the crest of a hill.

Further reading

Old English

Pronunciation

Noun

foxhole

  1. dative singular of foxhol
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