Home › Words › S › shotholeshotholeshothole means A hole, very deep but only a few inches wide, which is used to drop explosives beneath the Earth's surface to ease petroleum extraction.Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, shothole ranks #16,765 of 42,785 for Qualifying.EtymologyFrom shot + hole.nounA hole, very deep but only a few inches wide, which is used to drop explosives beneath the Earth's surface to ease petroleum extraction.Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).