Dent vs. Hole — What's the Difference?

A depression in a surface made by pressure or a blow

A hollowed place in something solid; a cavity or pit

(Informal) A significant, usually diminishing effect or impression

An opening or perforation

(Informal) Meaningful progress; headway

(Sports) An opening in a defensive formation, such as the area of a baseball infield between two adjacent fielders.

See tooth.

A fault or flaw

To make a dent in.

A deep place in a body of water.

To become dented

An animal's hollowed-out habitation, such as a burrow.

A shallow deformation in the surface of an object, produced by an impact.

An ugly, squalid, or depressing dwelling.

(figurative) A minor impact or effect made upon something.

A deep or isolated place of confinement; a dungeon.

A type of maize/corn with a relatively soft outer hull, and a soft type of starch that shrinks at maturity to leave an indentation in the surface of the kernel.

An awkward situation; a predicament.

A sudden negative change, such as loss, damage, weakening, consumption or diminution, especially one produced by an external force, event or action

The small pit lined with a cup into which a golf ball must be hit.

(engineering) A tooth, as of a card, a gear wheel, etc.

One of the divisions of a golf course, from tee to cup.

(weaving) A slot or a wire in a reed

(Physics) A vacant position in an atom left by the absence of a valence electron, especially a position in a semiconductor that acts as a carrier of positive electric charge. Also called electron hole.

(transitive) To impact something, producing a dent.

To put a hole in.

(intransitive) To develop a dent or dents.

To put or propel into a hole.

A stroke; a blow.

To make a hole in something.

A slight depression, or small notch or hollow, made by a blow or by pressure; an indentation.

A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; a dent; a depression; a fissure.

A tooth, as of a card, a gear wheel, etc.

An opening that goes all the way through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent.

To make a dent upon; to indent.

(heading) In games.

An appreciable consequence (especially a lessening);

(golf) A subsurface standard-size hole, also called cup, hitting the ball into which is the object of play. Each hole, of which there are usually eighteen as the standard on a full course, is located on a prepared surface, called the green, of a particular type grass.

A depression scratched or carved into a surface

(golf) The part of a game in which a player attempts to hit the ball into one of the holes.

An impression in a surface (as made by a blow)

(baseball) The rear portion of the defensive team between the shortstop and the third baseman.

Make a depression into;

(chess) A square on the board, with some positional significance, that a player does not, and cannot in future, control with a friendly pawn.

(stud poker) A card (also called a hole card) dealt face down thus unknown to all but its holder; the status in which such a card is.

In the game of fives, part of the floor of the court between the step and the pepperbox.

An excavation pit or trench.

(figuratively) A weakness; a flaw or ambiguity.

(informal) A container or receptacle.

(physics) In semiconductors, a lack of an electron in an occupied band behaving like a positively charged particle.

(computing) A security vulnerability in software which can be taken advantage of by an exploit.

An orifice, in particular the anus. When used with shut it always refers to the mouth.

Sex, or a sex partner.

Solitary confinement, a high-security prison cell often used as punishment.

(slang) An undesirable place to live or visit.

(figurative) Difficulty, in particular, debt.

(graph theory) A chordless cycle in a graph.

A passing loop; a siding provided for trains traveling in opposite directions on a single-track line to pass each other.

(transitive) To make holes in (an object or surface).

To destroy.

(intransitive) To go into a hole.

(transitive) To drive into a hole, as an animal, or a billiard ball or golf ball.

(transitive) To cut, dig, or bore a hole or holes in.

Whole.

A hollow place or cavity; an excavation; a pit; an opening in or through a solid body, a fabric, etc.; a perforation; a rent; a fissure.

An excavation in the ground, made by an animal to live in, or a natural cavity inhabited by an animal; hence, a low, narrow, or dark lodging or place; a mean habitation.

A small cavity used in some games, usually one into which a marble or ball is to be played or driven; hence, a score made by playing a marble or ball into such a hole, as in golf.

To cut, dig, or bore a hole or holes in; as, to hole a post for the insertion of rails or bars.

To drive into a hole, as an animal, or a billiard ball.

To go or get into a hole.

An opening into or through something

An opening deliberately made in or through something

One playing period (from tee to green) on a golf course;

An unoccupied space

A depression hollowed out of solid matter

A fault;

Informal terms for a difficult situation;

Informal terms for the mouth

Hit the ball into the hole

Make holes in