Careful Words

hole (n.)

hole (v.)

hole (adv.)

hole (adj.)

Imperious Caesar, dead and turn'd to clay,

Might stop a hole to keep the wind away.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Hamlet. Act v. Sc. 1.

If there's a hole in a' your coats,

I rede ye tent it;

A chiel's amang ye takin' notes,

And, faith, he 'll prent it.

Robert Burns (1759-1796): On Captain Grose's Peregrinations through Scotland.

  Not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745): Letter to Bolingbroke, March 21, 1729.

The mouse that hath but one hole is quickly taken.

George Herbert (1593-1632): Jacula Prudentum.

The mouse that always trusts to one poor hole

Can never be a mouse of any soul.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): The Wife of Bath. Her Prologue. Line 298.

  I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Love's Labour's Lost. Act v. Sc. 2.