Word Confusion: Holed versus Hulled

Plural for the noun: holes
Gerund: holing

Third person present verb: holes
Past tense or past participle: holed
Present participle: holing

Plural for the noun: hulls
Gerund: hulling

Third person present verb: hulls
Past tense or past participle: hulled
Present participle: hulling

• An aperture passing through something
• [Golf] A cavity or receptacle on a golf course, typically one of eighteen or nine, into which the ball must be hit
• [Golf] A hole as representing a division of a golf course or of play in golf
• An animal’s burrow
• [In place names] A valley
• [Physics] A position from which an electron is absent, especially one regarded as a mobile carrier of positive charge in a semiconductor

[Informal] A small or unpleasant place

• An awkward situation

Verb, intransitive:
[Golf] Hit (the ball) so that it falls into a hole

To make a hole or holes

Verb, transitive:
[Golf] Hit (the ball) so that it falls into a hole

Make a hole or holes in

Noun:
The outer covering of a fruit or seed, especially the pod of peas and beans, or the husk of grain ¹

• The green calyx of a strawberry or raspberry

Any covering or envelope

The main body of a ship or other vessel, including the bottom, sides, and deck but not the masts, superstructure, rigging, engines, and other fittings ²

The outer casing of a missile, rocket, spaceship, etc.

[Aeronautics] The boatlike fuselage of a flying boat on which the plane lands or takes off

• The cigar-shaped arrangement of girders enclosing the gasbag of a rigid dirigible

Verb, intransitive:
To drift without power or sails ³

Verb, transitive:
Remove the hulls from (fruit, seeds, or grain) ¹

To remove the hull of

[Midland US] To shell (peas or beans)

To pierce ²

Hit and pierce the hull of (a ship) with a shell or other missile, especially below the water line

He had a hole in his sock.

It’s an 18-hole course.

Stephen lost the first three holes to Eric.

The hound found a fox’s hole

Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is a celebrity hang-out.

Holes and electrons are the two types of charge carriers responsible for current in semiconductor materials.

She had wasted a whole lifetime in this hole of a town.

Get yourself out of a hole.

Verb, intransitive:
A golf ball is not technically holed until it stops moving.

The bag had been holed.

The robbers were holed up in a deserted warehouse.

She was holed up in the mountains somewhere, trying to avoid the media.

Verb, transitive:
A torpedo holed the boat.

A sandbar holed the boat.

The dogs holed the fox.

George was thrilled that he’d finally holed a putt.

She was old, that wooden-hulled narrowboat.

“Sarter was the operator of a 21-foot Monark aluminum-hulled boat that capsized about 11 a.m. after the engine became waterlogged, according to the sheriff’s office report” (Lovrien).

Noun:
“Rice hulls seem to keep very small seeds (like rushes, wool grass, etc.) from falling out of the seed mixture all at once” (Mason).

The hulls of those strawberries look stunted.

The convex hull is a useful tool helpful in constructing other structures like Voronoi diagrams, and in applications like unsupervised image analysis.

“In 1904, the 170-foot hull reappeared for the first time — and has reappeared periodically during times of drought and low water, like this summer” (Gualtieri).

The hull is constructed of a special fiberglass and resin to absorb shocks from underwater explosions.

Planes with boatlike hulls are also known as flying boats or seaplanes.

Rigid dirigibles with their cylindrical hulls never really made it past trials.

Verb, intransitive:
The Georgia was hulling.

Jim’s boat had hulled for seven days.

If there’s a chance of a storm, take out the Ella Mae, she’ll hull right.

Verb, transitive:
She first rinsed and hulled the berries.

The ship was being hulled and all would die.

She hulled the pinto beans before adding them.

Some of my memories included Grandma hulling peas on the back porch.

“Torbay, also a 74-gun, came up to assist with two broadsides, hulling the Formidable at so many points it was a wonder she kept afloat” (Wright).

1. Late Middle English from Old English hulu, is of Germanic origin and related to the Dutch huls, the German Hülse meaning husk, pod, and the German Hülle meaning covering.
2. Middle English perhaps the same word as 1.
3. It was first recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English as a special use of 1.