English
Pronunciation
IPA|/�lu�ph��l/
Noun
en-noun|sg=loophole
- A method of escape, especially an ambiguity or exception in a rule that can be exploited in order to avoid its effect.
#*1839, Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist
#*:Coupling the poor girl's intelligence with my previous knowledge, and the result of our good friend's inquiries on the spot, I left him no loophole of escape, and laid bare the whole villainy which by these lights became plain as day.
#*2002, Two Weeks Notice (movie)
#*:You have a contract that says you will work until Island Towers is finalized, which I interpret as completion of construction, or I can stop you working elsewhere. And there's no loopholes, because you drafted it and you're the best.
- A slit in a castle wall. Later: any similar window for shooting a weapon or letting in light.
#*1719, Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
#*:... and having a fair loophole, as it were, from a broken hole in the tree, he took a sure aim, without being seen, waiting till they were within about thirty yards of the tree, so that he could not miss.
#*1809, Maria Edgeworth, The Absentee
#*:There was a loophole in this wall, to let the light in, just at the height of a person's head, who was sitting near the chimney.
#*1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, p25
#*:The sun had shifted round, and the myriad windows of the Ministry of Truth, with the light no longer shining on them, looked grim as the loopholes of a fortress.
Translations
trans-top|method of escape
Finnish: porsaanreikä
French: échappatoire f
Italian: scappatoia f, cavillo m
Japanese: ��� (����, nukemichi)
trans-mid
Norwegian: smutthull n
Russian: лазейка (laz'éjka) f, �в���ка (uv'órtka) f
Spanish: escapatoria f
Swedish: kryphål n
trans-bottom
trans-top|slit in a castle wall
Finnish: ampuma-aukko
French: faille f
Italian: feritoia f
Japanese: �� (�����, jūgan)
trans-mid
Norwegian: skyteskår n
Portuguese: seteira f
Russian: амбÑ�азÑ�Ñ�а (ambrazúra) f, бойниÑ�а (bojnÃca) f
Swedish: skottglugg c
trans-bottom
fa:loophole
io:loophole
te:loophole
zh:loophole
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