# What did we say before the phrase “holed up” caught on? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 23, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-we-say-before-the-phrase-holed-up-caught-on/318263 "2005-08-23T15:08:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sixball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/35a633/32.png) [@sixball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sixball)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-we-say-before-the-phrase-holed-up-caught-on/318263/1 "2005-08-23T15:08:56Z")
It seems to me that “holed up” has only become popular with the search for Bin Laden. Isn’t there a more eloquent expression? ---
**Author:** ![micco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f8ce5/32.png) [@micco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/micco)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-we-say-before-the-phrase-holed-up-caught-on/318263/2 "2005-08-23T15:40:33Z")
I’ve heard and used the expression “holed up” all my life, decades before Bin Laden became an issue. I remember it from cowboy stories/movies of the Old West and other sources, but I don’t have any literary cites handy. ---
**Author:** ![sixball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/35a633/32.png) [@sixball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sixball)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-we-say-before-the-phrase-holed-up-caught-on/318263/3 "2005-08-23T16:21:24Z")
I had heard it before, too, but not used by journalists. I’d even say it sounds a little too “cowboy.” ---
**Author:** ![Sequent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Sequent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sequent)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-we-say-before-the-phrase-holed-up-caught-on/318263/4 "2005-08-23T16:45:53Z")
It’s a popular phrase because it works so well as an image. Especially in this age of terrorists in caves and dictators in spider holes. More eloquent alternatives: secreted away laying low sequestered Notice you’ll never hear, “Dick Cheney’s holed up.” No, he’d be in an “undisclosed location.” ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-we-say-before-the-phrase-holed-up-caught-on/318263/5 "2005-08-23T16:51:22Z")
Hah, the first two Google results for _‘“Holed up” etymology’_ give two old Straighdope columns! I can’t see anything about the phrase that could possibly be of modern origin - surely it applies to centuries-old situations just as well? (In particular my WAG would be a connection to hunting…) ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/96bed5/32.png) [@Cat\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-we-say-before-the-phrase-holed-up-caught-on/318263/6 "2005-08-23T16:57:42Z")
I came in ready to add my tuppence worth and as I was wondering if there was a possible link with 'The Hole in the Wall Gang" I realised that the phrase was probably used by hunters in the UK - we talk about a fox ‘going to earth’ when it evades the hounds and I have a feeling that ‘holed up’ could be used to talk about foxes, rabbits or badgers who have thus far evaded capture by hiding in their assorted burrows. ---
**Author:** ![ioioio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ioioio/32/316_2.png) [@ioioio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ioioio)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-we-say-before-the-phrase-holed-up-caught-on/318263/7 "2005-08-23T17:13:12Z")
I know the phrase was in use in the mid-1960s because it was used in a news story I heard on the radio then. (I remember the news story because it struck me as so funny, and I know the time frame because I remember where I was living at the time.) The news story was about a prison riot, and the radio newsman announced, “The prisoners are holed up in the prison snack bar and are demanding certain concessions.” Popcorn, maybe? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-we-say-before-the-phrase-holed-up-caught-on/318263/8 "2005-08-23T18:57:19Z")
> [@Cat Jones](#): > > I have a feeling that ‘holed up’ could be used to talk about foxes, rabbits or badgers who have thus far evaded capture by hiding in their assorted burrows. This is very close. “Holed up” was originally used to describe hibernating animals before it was applied figuratively to people. ---
**Author:** ![Ezstrete](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7ea924/32.png) [@Ezstrete](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ezstrete)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-we-say-before-the-phrase-holed-up-caught-on/318263/9 "2005-08-23T19:12:34Z")
> [@Cat Jones](#): > > I came in ready to add my tuppence worth and as I was wondering if there was a possible link with 'The Hole in the Wall Gang" I realised that the phrase was probably used by hunters in the UK - we talk about a fox ‘going to earth’ when it evades the hounds and I have a feeling that ‘holed up’ could be used to talk about foxes, rabbits or badgers who have thus far evaded capture by hiding in their assorted burrows. Surely we haven’tall forgotten the legend of the Scottisg soldier in the cave and the spider web? Man has survived by "holing -up"since the dawn of erectus. They had painings on the walls insteaf of Telly! EZ ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-we-say-before-the-phrase-holed-up-caught-on/318263/10 "2005-08-23T21:21:52Z")
The OED confirms that the original sense of “to hole up” is related to hiberation. Its first citation dates back to 1614: > [@](#): > > B. JONSON Barth. Fair IV. iv, Let him hole there. The actual _phrase_ “to hole up” dates to 1875: > [@](#): > > J. BURROUGHS Winter Sunshine 279 Only five days was I compelled to ‘hole up’ in my state-room. ---
**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\ **Post date:** [August 23, 2005, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-did-we-say-before-the-phrase-holed-up-caught-on/318263/11 "2005-08-23T21:29:19Z")
Oh yeah, there are at least three “cowboy” type citations, e.g.: > [@](#): > > 1924 C. E. MULFORD Rustlers’ Valley xii. 141 Now you’ll mebby have to take to th’ hills an’ hole up just when I need you most. Although no less than P.G.Wodehouse also used it: > [@](#): > > 1952 WODEHOUSE Pigs have Wings ix. 178 The poltergeist, for such he assumed it to be, appeared to have holed up behind the door that led presumably to the kitchen.