pigeonhole
English
Literal pigeonholes
A desk featuring pigeonholes
A pigeon-hole messagebox at a college.
Alternative forms
Etymology
Originally literal hole for pigeons, later similar compartments for papers, then extended metaphorically in verb sense of narrowly categorizing or deferring.
Pronunciation
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Audio (US) (file)
Noun
pigeonhole (plural pigeonholes)
- A nook in a desk for holding papers.
- One of an array of compartments for sorting post, messages etc. at an office, or college (for example).
- Fred was disappointed at the lack of post in his pigeonhole.
- A hole, or roosting place for pigeons.
Translations
one of an array of compartments
roosting place for pigeons
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Verb
pigeonhole (third-person singular simple present pigeonholes, present participle pigeonholing, simple past and past participle pigeonholed)
- To categorize; especially to limit or be limited to a particular category, role, etc.
- Fred was tired of being pigeonholed as a computer geek.
- 1902, Jack London, A Daughter of the Snows
- He prided himself on his largeness when he granted that there were three kinds of women... Not that he pigeon-holed Frona according to his inherited definitions.
- To put aside, to not act on (proposals, suggestions, advice).
- 1910, Angus Hamilton, Herbert Henry Austin, Masatake Terauchi, Korea: Its History, Its People, and Its Commerce, page 294
- These laws were not carried into effect: they were pigeon-holed.
- 1917, The Crisis, November 1917 issue, The Looking Glass: Election laws in Southern California, page 29
- [...] vociferously declared that they had the evidence. But no one prosecutes. No one swears out a warrant. The evidence is pigeonholed.
- 2008, Edward Sidlow, Beth Henschen, America at Odds, page 251
- Alternatively, the chairperson may decide to put the bill aside and ignore it. Most bills that are pigeonholed in this manner receive no further action.
- 1910, Angus Hamilton, Herbert Henry Austin, Masatake Terauchi, Korea: Its History, Its People, and Its Commerce, page 294
Synonyms
Translations
to categorize; especially to limit or be limited to a particular category, role, etc
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