hidey-hole

noun

hid·​ey-hole ˈhī-dē-ˌhōl 

variants or less commonly hidy-hole

informal

: an area or space used as a hiding place

Payday in Iraq means taking home a wodge of notes from your boss and shoving it under your bed or into some hidey-hole before finding time to visit your local bank to make a deposit.

—The Economist

Synonyms

• concealment
• covert
• den
• hermitage
• hideaway
• hideout
• lair
• nest

Examples of hidey-hole in a Sentence

commandos captured the deposed dictator in a carefully camouflaged cellar that he had been using as a hidey-hole

Recent Examples on the Web

Whereas wood and plastic boards are full of hidey-holes for nasties, titanium cutting boards leave no place for germs and odors to hide. —Walden Green, Pitchfork, 29 Oct. 2024

And soon, nature lovers will have a new secret spot to peep them all: a gigantic sculpture that winds through the landscape and includes a hidey-hole specially for birdwatching. —John Metcalfe, The Mercury News, 7 Aug. 2024

Reef-building corals—the engineers of myriad underwater structures—create maritime megalopolises dense with crevices and hidey-holes for fish and other sea creatures. —Fanni Szakal, Smithsonian Magazine, 27 June 2024

Its ultimate honeymoon hidey-hole, though, is Villa Rahasia, an off-grid retreat on a secret cove reached via a 90-minute trek from the resort, where couples only have the stars in the sky for company. —Chris Schalkx, Vogue, 4 Oct. 2023

Thus, Superior cleverly crafts a hidey-hole inside the fuel-filler flap, in which is inserted a spare key. —John Phillips, Car and Driver, 26 Aug. 2023

Word History

Etymology

alteration of earlier hiding-hole

First Known Use

1817, in the meaning defined above