pigeonhole

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word pigeonhole. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word pigeonhole, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say pigeonhole in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word pigeonhole you have here. The definition of the word pigeonhole will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofpigeonhole, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: pigeon-hole and pigeon hole

English

Literal pigeonholes (sense 1)
A pigeon-hole messagebox at Stanford University. (sense 2)
A desk featuring pigeonholes (sense 4)

Alternative forms

Etymology

pigeon +‎ hole. Originally literal hole for pigeons, later similar compartments for papers, then extended metaphorically in verb sense of narrowly categorizing or deferring.

Pronunciation

  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun

pigeonhole (plural pigeonholes)

  2. One of an array of compartments for housing pigeons in a pigeon loft (dovecote).
  4. (by extension) One of an array of compartments for receiving mail and other messages at a college, office, etc.
    Fred was disappointed to find his pigeonhole empty except for bills and a flyer offering 20% off on manicures.
  6. One of an array of compartments for storing scrolls at a library.
  8. A similar compartment in a desk, used for sorting and storing papers.
  10. (figurative) A category.
    • 2007 September 7, David Mills, “Do we need to keep the Beats in their box?”, in The Guardian‎:
      The Beat writers had very different styles and disliked the invented term and pigeonhole forced upon them.
    • 2018 May 4, Kaite Welsh, “'Single women fiction': how a genre went from subversive to sad”, in The Guardian‎:
      Amazon’s new pigeonhole for books about unmarried females is far more old-fashioned than the ‘New Woman novel’ tag deployed in the 19th century

Translations

Verb

pigeonhole (third-person singular simple present pigeonholes, present participle pigeonholing, simple past and past participle pigeonholed)

  1. To categorize; especially to limit or be limited to a particular category, role, etc.
    Fred was tired of being pigeonholed as a computer geek.
    • 1902 October, Jack London, A Daughter of the Snows, Philadelphia, Pa.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC:
      He prided himself on his largeness when he granted that there were three kinds of women […] Not that he pigeon-holed Frona according to his inherited definitions.
    • 2000, Eminem (lyrics and music), “The Way I Am”:
      I'm not gonna be able, to top on My Name Is / And pigeonholed into some poppy sensation
    • 2023 June 28, Nick Reilly, “Meet eee gee, the singer who refuses to put her music in one box”, in Rolling Stone UK‎:
      The singer, real name Emma Grankvist, deals in whip-smart lyrics and striking melodies that offer a refreshing perspective on the world around her, all wrapped up in a package that’s brilliantly tough to pigeonhole.
  2. To put aside, to not act on (proposals, suggestions, advice).
    Synonyms: mothball, shelve, table, glove box
    • 1910, Angus Hamilton, Herbert Henry Austin, Masatake Terauchi, Korea: Its History, Its People, and Its Commerce, page 294:
      These laws were not carried into effect: they were pigeon-holed.
    • 1917, “The Looking Glass: Election laws in Southern California”, in The Crisis, number 11, page 29:
      […] vociferously declared that they had the evidence. But no one prosecutes. No one swears out a warrant. The evidence is pigeonholed.
    • 2008, Edward Sidlow, Beth Henschen, America at Odds, page 251:
      Alternatively, the chairperson may decide to put the bill aside and ignore it. Most bills that are pigeonholed in this manner receive no further action.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

to put aside — see put aside

See also

Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia