eyelet-hole, n.
(ˈaɪlɪtˌhəʊl)
Forms: 6 ilet-, 6–7 oylet-, 6–9 eylet-, 7 eylot-, ilot-, oilet-, 7–8 ey(e)lid-, 8 eilet-, 9 oilete-, 7– eyelet-.
[f. eyelet n. + hole.]
1. = eyelet 1 a; also a hole for inserting a metal eyelet (see eyelet 1 b).
| 1497 Naval Accts. Hen. VII (1896) 334 Makyng of olyett-hooles with other necessaries for the seid sayles. 1580 North Plutarch (1676) 573 A Brigandine made of many folds of Canvas with Oylet-holes. 1599 A. M. tr. Gabelhouer's Bk. Physicke 184/2 The thong must lye..on the rupture, which must on both his sydes have 2 eyletholes. 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. vii. 31 The eylot holes of the saile. 1658 A. Fox tr. Wurtz' Surg. ii. xxiv. 144 Splinters made..with fitting fillets and bands, on which there are small eylid holes. 1743 Zollman in Phil. Trans. XLII. 365 A sort of Boat of Turkey Leather..with..Eilet-holes for receiving Hooks. 1762 Falconer Shipwr. ii. 335 The reef-lines next..Through eyelet-holes..were reeved. 1850 Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph., Downing Street 45 This poor tailor's-bodkin, hardly adequate to bore an eylet-hole. 1861 Pearson Early & Mid. Ages Eng. 206 Wool and flax, with silk for the lappets and the eyelet holes, were the common materials. |
| transf. 1599 Porter Angry Wom. Abingd. (Percy Soc.) 132 Twill be a good while ere you wish your skin full of ilet holes. 1634 Ford P. Warbeck ii. iii, Or let my skin be punch'd full of oylet-holes with the bodkin of derision. |
2. a. A small hole for the purpose of observation.
b. A hole or slit for the discharge of missiles.
| a. 1797–1803 Foster in Life & Corr. 1846 I. 178 An eyelet-hole, through which I fancied visions of entrancing beauty. 1848 W. H. Ainsworth Lanc. Witches i. x, Nor was she long in discovering a small eyelet-hole in the carving which commanded the room. 1869 Latest News 3 Oct. 15 Scarcely any of the helmets have eyeletholes, but the viser was in general left partly open. |
| b. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Jrnls. I. 606 Embrasures for guns and eyelet holes for musketry. 1879 Sir G. Scott Lect. Archit. I. 260 In a fortification external windows must be wholly avoided or reduced to mere eyelet-holes. |
3. nonce-use = eyehole a.
| a 1845 Hood Jack Hall xix, Death..gave a wink, As well as eyelet holes can blink. |
Hence
ˈeyelet-hole v., (
a)
intr. to make eyelet-holes; (
b)
trans., to make eyelet-holes in; to pierce through and through; to riddle.
ˈeyelet-holed ppl. a., furnished with eyelet-holes.
ˈeyelet-ˌholing vbl. n.| 1747 Gentl. Mag. Feb. 71 These lovers are to eylet-hole one another in Miss Biddy's presence. 1590 Barwick Disc. Manuall Weapons 21 Ilet holed dublets very easie. 1845 Dickens Chimes 63, I introduced pinking and eyelet-holeing among the men. |