sinkhole

See also: sink hole

English

Alternative forms

• sink hole, sink-hole

Etymology

From Middle English sinkehole, sinkeholl, equivalent to sink +‎ hole.

Noun

sinkhole (plural sinkholes)

sinkhole

1. (geology) A hole formed in soluble rock by the action of water, serving to conduct surface water to an underground passage

   Synonyms: cenote, doline, dolina, (Britain) kettle hole, shakehole, (Britain) sink, (Britain) swallet, swallow hole

2. A depressed area in which waste or drainage collects.
3. (pinball) A hole in the playfield that rewards the player when the ball is guided into it.
   • 1997, Windows magazine (volume 8, issues 1-3)

     Pro Pinball is as authentic as pinball has ever been on the PC. It's all here, from the ramps, bumpers and sinkholes to the satisfying "clack" when you make the high-score list.

4. (Internet) A domain name server that has been configured to hand out non-routeable addresses for all domains, so that every computer that uses it will fail to get access to the real website.
5. (computer security) An attack which redirects requests - be it network or memory accesses - to a new location defined by the attacker.

Translations

geology: hole formed in soluble rock

• Catalan: dolina f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: zinkgat (nl) n
• Esperanto: dolino
• Finnish: karstivajoama, vajoama, doliini (fi), suppa (fi), sortumakaivo
• French: doline (fr) f, gouffre (fr) m
• German: Doline (de) f, Senkloch n, Sinkloch n, Erdfall m, Schwinde f, Flussschwinde f, Schwalgloch n, Schluckloch n
• Greek: καταβοθρα (katavothra)
• Irish: súmaire m, poll slogaide m, slogaide f, cíocra f
• Italian: dolina (it) f, pulo m
• Korean: 싱크홀 (singkeuhol), 돌리네 (dolline)
• Maori: tomo
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Norman: dalot m (Jersey)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: jordfallshull (no) n, synkehull n

• Polish: lej krasowy (pl) m
• Portuguese: dolina (pt) f
• Russian: ка́рстовая воро́нка f (kárstovaja vorónka), дья́волова дыра́ f (dʹjávolova dyrá)
• Slovene: kraška dolina f
• Spanish: dolina (es) f, cenote (es) m
• Swedish: slukhål n, sänka (sv) c
• Thai: หลุมยุบ (lǔm-yúp)
• Turkish: düden (tr), obruk (tr)
• Vietnamese: hố sụt
• Welsh: llyncdwll m

depressed area in which water collects

• Arabic: بَالُوعَة f (bālūʕa), بَلَّاعَة f (ballāʕa)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Finnish: vajoama, kuoppa (fi)
• Galician: broque m, fochanca (gl) f, loio m, groba f, fanigoto m
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• German: Senkloch n, Sinkloch n, Ablauf (de) m, Abfluss (de) m
• Maori: whāwhārua
• Russian: выгребна́я я́ма f (vygrebnája jáma)
• Spanish: desagüe (es) m
• Turkish: düden (tr)