Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A small compartment or recess, as in a desk, for holding papers; a cubbyhole.
  • noun A specific, often oversimplified category.
  • noun The small hole or holes in a pigeon loft for nesting.
  • transitive verb To place or file in a small compartment or recess.
  • transitive verb To classify mentally; categorize.
  • transitive verb To put aside and ignore; shelve.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To place or file away in a pigeonhole; hence, to lay aside for future consideration; hence, to lay aside and ignore or forget; “shelve”; treat with intentional neglect: as, to pigeonhole an application for an appointment; to pigeonhole a scheme.
  • noun One of the holes in a dove-cote or pigeon-house through which the birds pass in and out.
  • noun Hence A little compartment or division in a case for papers, a bureau, a desk, or the like.
  • noun One of a series of holes in an arch of a furnace through which the gases of combustion pass.
  • noun One of a series of holes in the block at the bottom of a keir through which its liquid contents can be discharged.
  • noun plural An old English game, resembling modern bagatelle, in which balls were rolled through little cavities or arches.
  • noun In printing, an over-wide space between printed words. Also called rat-hole.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A small compartment in a desk or case for the keeping of letters, documents, etc.; -- so called from the resemblance of a row of them to the compartments in a dovecote.
  • transitive verb To place in the pigeonhole of a case or cabinet; hence, to put away; to lay aside indefinitely.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A nook in a desk for holding papers.
  • noun One of an array of compartments for sorting post, messages etc. at an office, or college (for example).
  • noun A hole, or roosting place for pigeons.
  • verb To categorize; especially to limit or be limited to a particular category, role, etc.
  • verb To put aside, to not act on (proposals, suggestions, advice).

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb place into a small compartment
  • verb treat or classify according to a mental stereotype
  • noun a small compartment
  • noun a specific (often simplistic) category

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

pigeon +‎ hole.

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Examples

  • Because I can't really separate the new from the old, the easiest way to clean out a label (what I call a pigeonhole) is to actually have enough time to deal with everything and empty it out.

    Ben Casnocha: The Blog 2008

  • Because I can't really separate the new from the old, the easiest way to clean out a label (what I call a pigeonhole) is to actually have enough time to deal with everything and empty it out.

    Ben Casnocha: The Blog 2008

  • Because I can't really separate the new from the old, the easiest way to clean out a label (what I call a pigeonhole) is to actually have enough time to deal with everything and empty it out.

    Ben Casnocha: The Blog 2008

  • With "You Are Where You Live," now you can discover what your pigeonhole is called -- just enter your ZIP code and the service will cough up your most likely demographic info (I'm either a Successful Single, a Mover And Shaker, a Mid-Life Success, a Great Beginning or an Urban Up And Comer).

    Boing Boing: August 19, 2001 - August 25, 2001 Archives 2001

  • So when they came to label the pigeonhole in the mailroom where letters are placed for the newest member of the Obama family, they settled on the word "Dog".

    The Guardian World News 2009

  • It's really tough to pigeonhole, which is why it's taken me a week and a half to write a simple damn review.

    Comics Should Be Good! @ Comic Book Resources MarkAndrew 2008

  • The person who is so close-minded to "pigeonhole" themselves into a certain way of thinking, i.e., strictly liberal or strictly conservative is what the true definition of ignorance is all about.

    Exclusive Video: Is This the Walking Record Whitetail? 2008

  • I wrote the melody myself, and I don't think of myself as a good enough musician to kind of pigeonhole an area and write to it.

    Loudon Wainwright's 'Charlie Poole Project' 2010

  • "A 'present' vote was hard to pigeonhole which is exactly what Obama wanted."

    Hillary Mailer Attacks Obama On Abortion 2009

  • "A 'present' vote was hard to pigeonhole which is exactly what Obama wanted."

    Hillary Hits Obama In New Speech: "I've Heard A Lot Of Talk About Turning The Page" 2009

Comments

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  • Original lyrics:

    You’re my picture on the wall

    You’re my vision in the hall

    You’re the one I’m talking to

    When I get in from my work

    For 5 months, I kept singing:

    You’re my picture on the wall

    You’re my pigeon in the hole

    .

    April 27, 2008

  • I'm having trouble recognizing which is the meaning of this word in different contexts. I only recognize it when it means "to file".

    May 3, 2012