glory hole

See also: gloryhole and glory-hole

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Noun

glory hole (plural glory holes)

1. (mining) A hole in a mineshaft where an orebody is mined upwards until it breaks through the surface into the open air.
2. (slang, sex) A hole in a screen or wall big enough to allow an erect penis to be stuck through, made to facilitate anonymous sex with another person.
   • 1962 [1959], William S. Burroughs, Naked Lunch, New York: Grove Press, page 75:

     The boy looks into Mugwump eyes blank as obsidian mirrors, pools of black blood, glory holes in a toilet wall closing on the Last Erection.

   • 2009, Richard Appel, “Family Gay”, in Family Guy, season 7, episode 8, spoken by Peter Griffin:

     One trick I used is turning things into a word problem. For example, if there are three glory holes in the bathroom at the club and 28 guys at the circuit party, how many rotations of guys will it take before everybody's had a turn?

   • 2009, “Scoliosis Jones”, in Jhelli Beam, performed by Busdriver:

     His personal assistants wear go-go boots and every vocal booth / Must have a glory hole

3. (slang) A military trench.
4. An excavation into the sea floor designed to protect the wellhead equipment installed at the surface of a petroleum well from icebergs or pack ice.
5. (glassblowing) A hole in the side of a furnace used to heat glass held on a metal rod.
6. (slang, Scotland and Northern England) A deep built-in cupboard under the eaves or stairs of a house used for general storage, particularly of unrelated or unwanted items stored in some disorder.
7. (slang, naval) In the merchant and Royal Navy:
   1. A generally untidy place.
   2. The stewards' mess on a passenger liner.
   3. The stokehold on a coal-burning tramp steamer.
8. A bell-mouth spillway: a spillway (a structure in the reservoir above a dam that allows overflowing water to be released in a controlled fashion) that is shaped like an upside-down bell, thereby giving the appearance of a hole in the surface of the water.
9. (slang, fishing, Canada) An especially good place to fish, a particularly rich fishing spot.

Translations

mining

• Finnish: alhaalta päin kaivettu kuilu

sex

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 尋歡洞／寻欢洞 (xúnhuāndòng)

• Finnish: glory hole (fi)
• French: glory hole (fr) m
• German: Glory Hole, Ruhmesloch n, Klappenloch n (slang), Schwanzloch n (slang)
• Greek: τσιμπουκότρυπα f (tsimpoukótrypa)
• Japanese: グローリーホール (gurōrīhōru), ラッキーホール (rakkīhōru)
• Korean: 글로리홀 (geullorihol)
• Russian: упои́тельная дыра́ f (upoítelʹnaja dyrá), гло́ри-хо́ул m (glóri-xóul)
• Spanish: agujero glorioso m

trench

• Finnish: potero (fi)
• Russian: око́п (ru) m (okóp)

glassblowing

• Finnish: trummeli, välilämmitysuuni, lämmitysuuni (fi)

naval: untidy place

• Finnish: läävä (fi)

an especially good place to fish

• Finnish: apaja (fi)

Verb

glory hole (third-person singular simple present glory holes, present participle glory holing, simple past and past participle glory holed)

1. Alternative spelling of gloryhole