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Porthole vs Pigeonhole - What's the difference?

porthole | pigeonhole |

As nouns the difference between porthole and pigeonhole

is that porthole is a circular window set in the hull of a ship while pigeonhole is a nook in a desk for holding papers.

As a verb pigeonhole is

to categorize; especially to limit or be limited to a particular category, role, etc.

porthole

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A circular window set in the hull of a ship.
  • Synonyms

    * scuttle

    Anagrams

    *

    pigeonhole

    Alternative forms

    * pigeon-hole * pigeon hole

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A nook in a desk for holding papers.
  • One of an array of compartments for sorting post, messages etc. at an office, or college (for example).
  • Fred was disappointed at the lack of post in his pigeonhole .
  • A hole, or roosting place for pigeons.
  • Ancient Roman system of storage, used in libraries for keeping scrolls
  • Verb

    (pigeonhol)
  • To categorize; especially to limit or be limited to a particular category, role, etc.
  • Fred was tired of being pigeonholed as a computer geek.
  • * 1902 ,
  • He prided himself on his largeness when he granted that there were three kinds of women... Not that he pigeon-holed Frona according to his inherited definitions.
  • To put aside, to not act on (proposals, suggestions, advice).
  • * 1910 , Angus Hamilton, Herbert Henry Austin, Masatake Terauchi, Korea: Its History, Its People, and Its Commerce , page 294
  • These laws were not carried into effect: they were pigeon-holed .
  • * 1917 , , November 1917 issue, The Looking Glass: Election laws in Southern California , page 29
  • [...] vociferously declared that they had the evidence. But no one prosecutes. No one swears out a warrant. The evidence is pigeonholed .
  • * 2008 , Edward Sidlow, Beth Henschen, America at Odds , page 251
  • Alternatively, the chairperson may decide to put the bill aside and ignore it. Most bills that are pigeonholed in this manner receive no further action.

    Synonyms

    * (not act on) shelve, table

    See also

    * cubbyhole