Meaning of bolthole | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A hole in an animal’s den, or through a wall or fence, used for escape or emergency exit, i.e., a hole the animal may bolt through.
2. A hidden place of emergency refuge.
   figuratively
3. A second home, etc., where one can seek an escape or refuge from the stresses of everyday life.
   figuratively

Equivalents

Examples

“There was a guard at the front doors. He was smoking a cigarette; she'd seen the light from a great distance. They'd grown incautious in the absence of her continual raids, probably imagining she'd died of some viral infection alone in one of the countless caves ringing the forest. She'd seen their hunting parties canvassing the area, had prepared a few extra boltholes in case they found the one she'd shared with Yésica, but it hadn't proven necessary. Maybe they didn't really want to find her.”

“a bolthole in the Dordogne”

““We’ll find a home among the Fremen,” Paul said, “where your Missionaria Protectiva has bought us a bolt hole.” They’ve prepared a way for us in the desert, Jessica told herself. But how can he know of the Missionaria Protectiva?”

“In the 1950s, Hollywood decamped to the desert – bankrolling the world’s most daring modernist architects to create ever more experimental boltholes.”

“Because even a modernist villa on a hillside on the island of Aegina – a fast ferry ride from the port of Piraeus and the summer bolthole of chic Athenians – is not the sanctuary from the modern world that it might once have been.”

“It was on this "beautiful terrace" that "George III, and the royal family resided". Bradshaw tells me that George stayed at the Royal Lodge, which I believe was his nearby holiday bolthole - Gloucester Lodge.”

CEFR level