Pronunciation: /ˈrathəʊl/
noun
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1 informal a cramped or squalid room or building: a rathole where a friend lived until her place was broken into for the seventeenth time
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2North American informal used to refer to the waste of money or resources: pouring our assets down the rathole of military expenditure
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3(in the oil industry) a shallow hole drilled near a well to accommodate the drill string joint when not in use.
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a small hole drilled at the bottom of a larger hole.
verb
[with object] North American informal-
hide (money or goods), typically as part of a deception: he had ratholed the nine thousand that nobody could find