pigeonhole

• pigeon-hole, pigeon hole

pigeon +‎ hole. Originally literal hole for pigeons, later similar compartments for paper, then extended metaphorically in verb sense of narrowly categorizing or deferring.

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pigeonhole (plural pigeonholes)

1. One of an array of compartments for housing pigeons.
2. (by extension) One of an array of compartments for receiving mail and other messages at a college, office, etc.

   Fred was disappointed to find his pigeonhole empty except for bills and a flyer offering 20% off on manicures.

3. One of an array of compartments for storing scrolls at a library.
4. A similar compartment in a desk, used for sorting and storing papers.
5. (figurative) A category.
   • 2007 September 7, David Mills, “Do we need to keep the Beats in their box?”, in The Guardian‎:

     The Beat writers had very different styles and disliked the invented term and pigeonhole forced upon them.

   • 2018 May 4, Kaite Welsh, “'Single women fiction': how a genre went from subversive to sad”, in The Guardian‎:

     Amazon’s new pigeonhole for books about unmarried females is far more old-fashioned than the ‘New Woman novel’ tag deployed in the 19th century

pigeonhole (third-person singular simple present pigeonholes, present participle pigeonholing, simple past and past participle pigeonholed)

1. 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, Jack London, A Daughter of the Snows:

     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.

2. To put aside, to not act on (proposals, suggestions, advice).

   Synonyms: mothball, shelve, table, glove box

   • 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, “The Looking Glass: Election laws in Southern California”, in The Crisis, number 11, 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.

• pidge

• pigeonhole principle
• pigeonholeable
• pigeonholer

• cubbyhole