memory hole

1 of 2

noun

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

memory-hole

2 of 2

verb

mem·​o·​ry-hole ˈmem-rē-ˌhōl How to pronounce memory-hole (audio)
ˈme-mə-
variants or memory hole
memory-holed or memory holed; memory-holing or memory holing; memory-holes or memory holes

transitive verb

: 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

Examples of memory hole in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
Noun
Some of these Marvel Cinematic Universe series (like Secret Invasion) seem to have immediately disappeared down a cultural memory hole, while others (like Ms. Marvel) feel a little redundant with the MCU movie that followed. Christian Holub, EW.com, 19 Sep. 2024 An unprecedented intervention effectively disappeared down a memory hole. Adam Tooze, Foreign Affairs, 13 Aug. 2018 Fans wanted to keep it from falling into another memory hole caused by the streaming content machine. Ben Travers, IndieWire, 28 June 2024 The epic bloodbath has almost disappeared down the memory hole. Christopher Knight, Los Angeles Times, 7 Dec. 2023
Verb
News organizations are actively engaging in exactly the practice carried out by Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four, memory-holing their previous publications to fit the new party line. Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review, 26 July 2024 Like much of Trump’s tenure, the specifics of this fiasco have been memory-holed in the broader cloud of scandal and mismanagement. New York Daily News Editorial Board, New York Daily News, 11 Jan. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'memory hole.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

Etymology

Verb

derivative of memory hole

First Known Use

Noun

1956, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1980, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of memory hole was in 1956

Dictionary Entries Near memory hole

memory-hole

memory hole

memory lane

Cite this Entry

“Memory hole.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/memory%20hole. Accessed 4 Oct. 2024.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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