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Thanks for your understanding.
Chris -- 2018-04-11
Google counts on Nov 9, 2006
53,500 “was holed up in”
87 “was hold up in”—eggcorn.
Analysis by Joe Krozel
To “hole up” means to take refuge or shelter. For many years when I had heard the term “holed up” I assumed it was “hold up” in the sense of being held against one’s will (if only by circumstance). Others may have had the same eggcorn experience with this expression.
It’s difficult to enumerate this eggcorn because “hold up” has other meanings. The desired meaning can be targeted by adding helper words (was, in) to the Google search even though this cuts down on the count. The count can be raised by considering other helper words if the incidence is too low to record.
Examples:
AngryBlackBitch: Scooter Montana – A bitch’s dream from last night…Scooter Montana, having been abandoned by everyone but Laura and his dawg Barney, was hold up in the Oval whilst his enemies descended to take him …
angryblackbitch.blogspot.com/2006/09/scooter-montana-bitchs-dream-from-last.html – 23k – Cached – Similar pages
urbanography – 1857 -The Police Riots in New York, by Gregory J …He was hold up in City Hall the day he was to be arrested. On officer came there to serve the warrant but was beaten off. A force of 50 Metropolitan Police …
urbanography.com/1857/police3.html – 22k – Cached – Similar pages
Article Detail – Sort ASCHussein was hold up in a small spider whole at a small farm. He was killed by a grenade explosion when troops cleared the hole after they had received small …
www.witchvox.com/wren/wn_detaila.html?id=16520 – 65k – Cached – Similar pages
CNN.com – TranscriptsThere was hold-up in a house. They took an observation post position there, defensive position, and it was attacked by Hezbollah fighters with these …
transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0608/09/acd.02.html – 68k – Cached – Similar pages
An apology for slavery should flow from the source: VirginiaHmmm, I believe he was hold up in a fancy dancy hotel. I wish I lived so grand! And do only blacks live in N.O.? I doubt that. Did the whites get “chosen” ...
www.topix.net/forum/city/suffolk-va/T3H … 21I02H/p76 – 93k – Cached – Similar pages
STLtoday – Autos – Old Car ColumnAfter scaring the bejeebees out of Kathy and Brent, the scoundrel jumped a fence, ran down an embankment and was hold up in the yard of nearby Clark Boat …
www.stltoday.com/.../autos/columnists.n … enDocument – 41k – Cached – Similar pages
We Can’t Tell Reality From Fantasy: No Sleep ’Til Divytown, No …He was hold-up in the ruined tower on the first level of the ruins…You can go back there, even after finishing the Necromancers quest…. ...
www.bitcheswithglitches.com/nwn/archive … 00043.html – 42k – Cached – Similar pages
www.myspace.com/friedpeanutbuttersandwichI was hold up in a motel under the name of Dr. John Burrows. I stayed there a few weeks and ordered take out chicken and watched T.V. I wanted to have time …
profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=75943814 – 143k – Cached – Similar pages
The Daily PoliticsWe should have blown Muqtada al-Sadr and his little thug army away while he was hold up in the mosque. But no, you and the pinko NYT’s would have gone ape …
blogs.nydailynews.com/dailypolitics/archives/2006/10/post_42.php – 189k – Cached – Similar pages
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Here’s another cute variation on being holed up — being wholed up. One sense of this seems to be “gathered together inside”:
Political message board extract? Anyway, there was an episode before they caught her where six members of the SLA were armed and wholed up in a house… An armed wholed-up person burned to death in San Diego on May 2, 1997. The police fired CS gas into the house … A member of a violent militia group called ‘The Posse’ was armed and wholed up: they simply purposely set the house on fire.
The idea that being put together makes you “wholed-up” is evoked directly in the following post:
Snowboarder’s personal blog
She seemed in need of a boy to be set up with. I get her all wholed-up with Trevor via my internet. She didn’t buy it. He didn’t buy it.
Gamer forum brainstorming when you get infected you become a zombie but you can be faster, stronger or the ability to use a gun. Police fending off zombies around the city, survivors wholed up in building scared for their life.
Problems with the togetherness explanation arise when one person is portrayed as “wholed up”. Seems to convey an image of being “self-contained”, “wrapped up”.
A Minnesota Twilight Fanpire Club
South America! I I’ve been to Central America many times, and next i’d like to concer (concur?) SA- though I wouldn’t be wholed up in an attic somewhere like Ed.
About 100 ughits without looking for different conjugations
Last edited by burred (2009-04-03 07:23:24)
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