waterhole

See also: water-hole and water hole

English

Alternative forms

• water-hole
• water hole

Etymology

• water +‎ hole.
• (astronomy): Coined by Bernard Oliver in 1971, in allusion to the idea that this part of the spectrum would be that used by extraterrestrial intelligence to communicate.

Noun

waterhole (plural waterholes)

1. A depression in which water collects, especially one where wild animals come to drink.
   • 1907, Barbara Baynton, edited by Sally Krimmer and Alan Lawson, Human Toll (Portable Australian Authors: Barbara Baynton), St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, published 1980, page 268:

     From habit the sheep would head for the river, but, though it was early spring, the winter had been droughty, and the river was only a string of dangerous water-holes.

2. (informal) A watering hole; a place where people meet to drink and talk.
3. (astronomy) A part of the electromagnetic spectrum, between the regions where hydrogen and hydroxyl radiate, that is relatively quiet in terms of radio astronomy.

Translations

depression in which water collects

• Arabic: وِرْد (ar) (wird), مَشْرَع (mašraʕ)
• Bulgarian: гьол (bg) m (gjol)
• Finnish: vesikuoppa (fi)
• French: abreuvoir (fr) m
• Galician: balsa f
• German: Wasserloch (de) n
• Irish: dabhach f
• Kurtjar: rdool
• Macedonian: во́допој m (vódopoj), по́ило n (póilo)
• Maori: pūkanohi, ruapuna
• Plautdietsch: Wotaloch n
• Polish: wodopój (pl) m
• Russian: водопой (ru) m (vodopoj)
• Spanish: aguaje (es) m
• Swedish: vattenhål n
• Turkish: suvat (tr)

part of the electromagnetic spectrum

• Finnish: vesikuoppa (fi)
• French: fenêtre de l’eau (fr), point d’eau (fr), trou d’eau

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