plural memory holes
: the condition or state of being suppressed, erased, or forgotten (as for political or personal convenience) imagined as a physical place
The answer lies in bipartisan consensus of Republicans and Democrats to let the savings and loan debacle vanish down the memory hole.—Alexander Cockburn
Sixteen years after Americans troops crossed the Kuwaiti border into Iraq, a war that took the lives of more than 4,400 soldiers and left tens of thousands wounded has disappeared down the American people's collective memory hole.—Michael A. Cohen and Micah Zenko
A Runner's Journey shows how a lot of that history was shoved down a memory hole—including the political activism that swirled about the Berlin Olympics in 1936 …—Brian Bethune
The "historically low interest rates," thanks to low inflation, … seem destined … to be consigned to a similar memory hole, to be replaced with some new story about higher inflation yielding higher revenues.—Andrew Coyne
The paper exerts editorial control over itself, of course, and the question is not one of putting a piece of information down the memory hole, but revisiting whether it was newsworthy to begin with. … The newspaper has established a 10-person committee to examine petitions from people asking to have articles updated—never removed, it's important to add.—Devin Coldewey
mem·o·ry-hole
ˈmem-rē-ˌhōl
ˈme-mə-
variants
or memory hole
memory-holed or memory holed; memory-holing or memory holing; memory-holes or memory holes
: to cause (facts, memories, etc. about the past) to be suppressed, erased, or forgotten (as for political or personal convenience)
Republicans have revisited criticism of Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal in light of the White House's recent report, which they accuse of trying to memory-hole the evacuation.—Brady Knox
A year later, Roxbury's central hub became Nubian Square, memory-holing the name by which it had been known for generations, that of Puritan governor Thomas Dudley.—Jeff Jacoby
But the fact is, I was an anxious mess when it seemed we were on the brink of a world war. … It's strange to me that I have since somehow memory-holed all that anxiety …—Lili Loofbourow
Cite this Entry
“Memory hole.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/memory%20hole. Accessed 17 Jul. 2026.
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