Also venthole, vent hole. [f. VENT sb.2 + HOLE sb.]
1. A hole or opening for the admission or passage of air, light, etc.
1577. B. Googe, Heresbach’s Husb., II. (1586), 70. Afterward stop the vent holes that the Mole hath in euery place.
1733. Tull, Horse-Hoeing Husb., xiv. 186. A large Basket drawn up the middle of each [rick of sainfoin], to leave a Vent-Hole there.
1756–7. trans. Keysler’s Trav. (1760), III. 110. Two large vent-holes for light and air are made through the roof of this grotto.
1763. Mills, Pract. Husb., III. 123. It was covered with good oak planks,… leaving only some vent-holes, with trap doors, or covers, fitted very exactly to them.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. 113. Two huts and four families, but for these vent-holes entirely buried in the snow.
2. A hole or opening in a furnace, etc., for escape of smoke and gases or the admission of fresh air.
1612. Sturtevant, Metallica (1854), 118. The lower vent-holes let out the smoak.
1664. Evelyn, Sylva, 101. You must make Vent-holes … through the stuff which covers your heap to the very wood.
1678. R. R[ussell], trans. Geber, II. I. IV. vi. 96. A Furnace with large Ventholes gives both a clear and strong Fire.
1715. Desaguliers, Fires Impr., 16. The Passage X of the Bellows or Vent-Hole. Ibid. The Air will be made so thin over the Vent-Hole, as to press less than that which is coming from without.
1862. M. Hopkins, Hawaii, 25. The suffocating gases which escaped from the red hot ventholes of these furnaces.
b. Any hole by which an enclosed space communicates with, or discharges into, the outside air.
1750. Warburton, Julian, II. vi. A bare and hollow rock; which would here and there afford vent-holes for such fumes as generated within to transpire.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, I. 43. Water-balls have a hollow-globe, turned somewhat oblong, with a vent-hole.
1800. Phil. Trans., XC. 234. The case … was charged through its vent-hole, and introduced into a twelve-pounder carronade.
1802. Encycl. Brit., Suppl. II. 748/1. Vent-holes may be bored in convenient parts of the deck … from whence the state of the corn may be known by the effluvia which ascend.
c. In fig. uses.
1711. E. Ward, Vulgus Brit., II. 124. The Ventholes of their Passion.
1908. Parish Councils, 22. The council serves as a vent-hole for complaints and suspicions.
3. spec. a. An air-hole in a cask; a vent.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric., 120. Turn it up into the Vessel … to ferment, allowing but a small Vent-hole, lest the spirits waste.
1707. Mortimer, Husb., 573. Have near the Bung-hole a little Vent-hole stopp’d with a Spile.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Brewing, Opening and stopping the Vent-hole on every Change of Weather.
Comb. 1875. Knight, Dict. Mech., 2703. Vent-faucet, an instrument which may act as a vent-hole borer.
b. (See quots.)
1728. Chambers, Cycl., Vent, Vent-Hole, or Spiracle, a little Aperture, left in the Tubes or Pipes of Fountains, to facilitate the Wind’s escape.
1883. Gresley, Gloss. Coal-M., 269. Vent or Vent Hole, a small passage made with a needle through the tamping, which is used for admitting a squib, to enable the charge to be ignited.
