bolthole

• bolt-hole

From bolt +‎ hole.

bolthole (plural boltholes)

1. A hole in an animal’s den, or through a wall or fence, used for escape or emergency exit, i.e., a hole the animal may bolt through.
2. (figurative) A hidden place of emergency refuge.
   • 2023 October 12, HarryBlank, “Fire in the Hole”, in SCP Foundation‎^[1], archived from the original on 22 May 2024:

     There was a guard at the front doors. He was smoking a cigarette; she'd seen the light from a great distance. They'd grown incautious in the absence of her continual raids, probably imagining she'd died of some viral infection alone in one of the countless caves ringing the forest. She'd seen their hunting parties canvassing the area, had prepared a few extra boltholes in case they found the one she'd shared with Yésica, but it hadn't proven necessary. Maybe they didn't really want to find her.

3. (figurative) A second home, etc., where a person can go to escape the stresses of everyday life.

   a bolthole in the Dordogne

   • 1965, Frank Herbert, Dune‎^[2] (Science Fiction), New York: Ace Books, →OCLC, page 205‎^[3]:

     “We’ll find a home among the Fremen,” Paul said, “where your Missionaria Protectiva has bought us a bolt hole.”
     They’ve prepared a way for us in the desert, Jessica told herself. But how can he know of the Missionaria Protectiva?

   • 2016 February 29, Oliver Wainwright, “Two pools, 13 bathrooms and 300 for dinner: the modernist fun palaces of Palm Springs”, in The Guardian‎^[4]:

     In the 1950s, Hollywood decamped to the desert – bankrolling the world’s most daring modernist architects to create ever more experimental boltholes.

   • 2023 September 24, Carole Cadwalladr, “‘Capitalism is dead. Now we have something much worse’: Yanis Varoufakis on extremism, Starmer, and the tyranny of big tech”, in The Observer‎^[5], →ISSN:

     Because even a modernist villa on a hillside on the island of Aegina – a fast ferry ride from the port of Piraeus and the summer bolthole of chic Athenians – is not the sanctuary from the modern world that it might once have been.

   • 2023 December 27, Stephen Roberts, “Bradshaw's Britain: the way to Weymouth”, in RAIL, number 999, page 55:

     It was on this "beautiful terrace" that "George III, and the royal family resided". Bradshaw tells me that George stayed at the Royal Lodge, which I believe was his nearby holiday bolthole - Gloucester Lodge.