[f. ARM sb.1]
1. An arm-pit. arch. or Obs.
1391. Chaucer, Astrol., I. § 21. 13. Gemini [hath] thyn armholes and thin armes.
1535. Coverdale, Jer. xxxviii. 12. Put these ragges and cloutes vnder thine arme holes.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. ii. IV. (1651), 268. [They] will wade up to the Armholes.
1696. Bp. Patrick, Comm. Exod., xxix. The Girdle … about him under the Arm-holes.
fig. 1865. Cornh. Mag., 38. Mr. Ruskin has been rightly praised for applying such a bold yet true metaphor as ‘arm-holes’ to those pits which are scooped under the branches at the point where they leave the tree.
2. The similar cavity in other animals, e.g., behind the fore-legs of a horse. arch. or Obs.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 309. The horse … will be very hollow in the brisket towards the arme-holes.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 76. Where it toucheth the arme-holes, it becommeth in dogs and Apes very fleshy.
3. The hole in a garment through which the arm is put.
1775. in Ash.
1835. Miss Kemble, Rec. Later Life, I. 38. Tight waistbands, tight armholes and tight bodices.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., v. 57. With his thumbs fixed into the armholes of his waistcoat.
