[f. LOOP sb.2 + HOLE sb.]
1. Fortification. A narrow vertical opening, usually widening inwards, cut in a wall or other defence, to allow of the passage of missiles.
1591. Garrard’s Art of Warre, 302. That not one of the towne do so much as appeare at their defences or loop holes.
a. 1625. Fletcher, Nice Valour, II. i. 1st Song. Thou that makest a heart thy Tower, And thy loop-holes, Ladies eyes.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, IX. 711. Shoot through the Loopholes, and sharp Jav’lins throw.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F. (1869), III. lxviii. 716. Incessant volleys were securely discharged from the loop-holes.
1805. Southey, Ballads & Metr. T., Poet. Wks. VI. 59. Bishop Hatto … barr’d with care All the windows, doors, and loop-holes there.
1840. Browning, Sordello, II. 981. Ah, the slim castle!… gone to ruin—trails Of vine through every loop-hole.
1859. F. A. Griffiths, Artil. Man. (1862), 263. Loop-holes are oblong holes, from 15 to 18 inches long. 6 inches wide within, and 2 or 3 without. They are cut through timber, or masonry, for the service of small arms.
† b. Naut. A port-hole. Also (see quot. 1769).
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 7. They fit Loop-holes in them for the close fights.
1632. J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 40. Her mast and loope-holes gracefully adorned with banners, and flags of cloth of gold.
1634–5. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 166. The Waves flashed into the Ship at the loop-holes at the stern.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1780), Loop-holes,… small apertures … in the bulk-heads and other parts of a merchant ship, through which the small arms are fired on an enemy who boards her.
1867. in Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk.
2. A similar opening to look through, or for the admission of light and air.
1591. Percivall, Sp. Dict., Miradero, a watch tower, a loop hole.
1606. Holland, Sueton., Nero, xii. His manner was to beholde them … through little loope-holes.
1667. Milton, P. L., IX. 1110. The Indian Herdsman … tends his pasturing Herds At Loopholes cut through thickest shade.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. iv. (1840), 92. Having a fair loophole … from a broken hole in the tree.
1789. Brand, Hist. Newcastle, I. 175. This passage … has three or four loup holes on each side, all widening gradually inwards.
1828. P. Cunningham, N. S. Wales (ed. 3), II. 291. Loop-holes and slides at top and bottom for the admission of air.
1848. Eliza Cook, Curls & Couplets, xvi. 16. The callow raven tumbles, From the loop-hole of his hiding.
1901. Q. Rev., April, 505. Not two dozen were capable of duty beyond watching behind loopholes.
b. fig. (Cowper’s phrase ‘loopholes of retreat’ has been used by many later writers.)
1784. Cowper, Task, IV. 88. ’Tis pleasant through the loop-holes of retreat To peep at such a world.
1853. Chr. Remembrancer, Jan., 59. The loop-holes through which we view the household manners of these times may be few and contracted.
1879. G. Meredith, Egoist, xiii. (1889), 117. Dim as the loophole was, Clara fixed her mind on it till it gathered light.
c. (See quot.)
1842–59. Gwilt, Archit., Gloss. s.v. Loop, A loophole is a term applied to the vertical series of doors in a warehouse, from which the goods, in craning, are delivered into the warehouse.
3. fig. An outlet or means of escape. Often applied to an ambiguity or omission in a statute, etc., which affords opportunity for evading its intention.
[Perh. after Du. loopgat, in which the first element is the stem of loopen to run.]
1663–4. Marvell, Corr., Wks. 1872–5, II. 143. It would be much below You and Me,… to have such loop-holes in Our souls, and to … squeeze Our selves through our own words.
1682. Dryden, Dk. of Guise, Dram. Wks. 1725, V. 327. Their Loop-Hole is ready, that the Cæsar here spoken of, was a private Man.
a. 1700. T. Brown, Wks. (1709), IV. v. 329. Some of the Doctor’s Counsel has found out a Loop-hole for him in the Act.
1768. Foote, Devil on 2 Sticks, I. Wks. 1799, II. 253. A legal loop-hole … for a rogue now and then to creep through.
1807. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 73. What loop-hole they will find in the case, when it comes to trial, we cannot foresee.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xi. III. 80. The Test Act … left loopholes through which schismatics sometimes crept into civil employments.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., II. xvii. 518. Even the ‘confirmatio cartarum’ had left some loopholes which the king was far too astute to overlook.
1888. Annie S. Swan, Doris Cheyne, iv. 70. Under the guise of motherly solicitude … she had left her without a loophole of escape.
4. attrib. and Comb., as loop-hole door, frame; loophole-lighted adj.
1855. Act 18 & 19 Vict., c. 122 § 14. Loophole frames may be fixed within one inch and a half of the face of any external wall.
1866. N. & Q., 3rd Ser. IX. 447/2. A solidly constructed stone staircase that conducts to several dark and loophole-lighted chambers.
1891. Daily News, 16 Nov., 7/1. I broke and cut a board from one of the loophole doors.
