the.com/foxhole
A dug-out pit where a soldier shelters from gunfire and shelling during combat.
means A small dug-out pit that a soldier shelters in during combat, and by extension any makeshift refuge grabbed in a crisis.
from Straightforward compound of 'fox' and 'hole' — the literal den a fox digs to hide and shelter in. Soldiers borrowed the image directly: the shallow pits scraped into earth for cover in World War I and especially World War II looked and functioned like an animal's burrow, so the slang stuck and outlasted the trenches it described.
- WWII origin
- Replaced trenches because artillery got scarily precise
- the phrase
- No atheists in foxholes is actually disputed by surveys
- ideal size
- Just big enough for two, cozy with mortality
- modern use
- Now means any shared crisis bunker, literal or emotional