A hole in timber, formerly filled by a knot.
1726. I found one great leak, which was a Knot Hole.—G. Roberts, ‘Voyages,’ p. 284. (N.E.D.)
1824. The little fellow’s eyes were as big as a large knot hole.—Mass. Spy, Sept. 8.
1833. [They would] worry and fret a feller’s soul into a knot-hole.—J. K. Paulding, ‘The Banks of the Ohio,’ ii. 82.
1833. Mrs. Judith had applied her ear to the key-hole, or rather to the knot-hole, for other there was none.—Id., ii. 96.
1847. When I got into the President’s chamber he was laying down on the bed to rest, and looking as tired as a rat that had been drawed through forty knot-holes.—Seba Smith (‘Major Downing’), ‘My Thirty Years Out of the Senate,’ p. 250 (1860).
1857. He got one [a birch-bark bucket] completed, and found a knot-hole in the bottom.—Knick. Mag., l. 499 (Nov.).
1861. As soon as I shut the door, I looked back through a knot-hole, and saw him take a pen, and make two marks on the paper.—Id., lviii. 505 (Dec.).
