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Middlemarch vocabulary
551 vocabulary words, including people, places, music, artists, etc.
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pigeonhole
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► definition
Definition:A small compartment in a desk or case for the keeping of letters, documents, etc.; -- so called from the resemblance of a row of them to the compartments in a dovecote.Noah Webster. Webster's Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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► uses
Uses:
Government clerks set up their baize-covered tables and their pigeonholes of documents in small rooms.
Leo Tolstoy. War and Peace
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how do you arrange your documents?"
"In pigeon-holes partly," said Mr. Casaubon, with rather a startled air of effort.
"Ah, pigeon-holes will not do. I have tried pigeon-holes, but everything gets mixed in pigeon-holes: I never know whether a paper is in A or Z."
George Eliot. Middlemarch
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He took a handful of papers from a pigeonhole—bills and receipts; next hole, insurance;
John Steinbeck. East of Eden, p.543 (1952)
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I finished off my masterpiece with a rude word, carefully sprinkled it with sand and blotted it before propping it up against the bank of pigeon-holes.
Diana Gabaldon. Outlander (1991)
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