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Recent Examples of holed upThey had been holed up in French diplomatic premises in Iran since their release from prison in November.—Sarah Dean, NBC news, 7 Apr. 2026 When he isn’t holed up doing taxidermy, her protective physician husband (Ted Levine) stalks around the cabin angrily.—Judy Berman, Time, 26 Mar. 2026 Currently, the Connecticut resident has been holed up at home after slipping on the stoop at his old friend Marsha Mason’s house.—Christopher Arnott, Hartford Courant, 22 Mar. 2026 The idea was hatched during the pandemic, when Kevin and Kyra were holed up together and going stir crazy.—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 20 Mar. 2026 Pouya Akhgari, 22, is holed up in a family house with aunts and cousins in a village 200 kilometers (120 miles) from his home in the capital, Tehran.—ABC News, 10 Mar. 2026 Klæbo acknowledged that some of his race-winning efforts exhausted him, including one that left him holed up in his hotel room playing video games the day afterward.—Nathaniel Herz, NPR, 21 Feb. 2026 The man, who was not named, holed up for at least three hours inside the house as sheriff’s deputies waited outside for a SWAT team to arrive.—Sharon Bernstein, Sacbee.com, 22 Dec. 2025 Manila — The father and son suspected of carrying out Sunday’s Bondi Beach massacre holed up in a hotel for most of their almost month-long stay in the Philippines in November, rarely left their rooms and dined on fast food, a hotel employee told CNN.—Jinky Jorgio, CNN Money, 18 Dec. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for holed up
lurked
Verb
The short answer is that a wide gulf exists between rumor and fact and Swalwell lurked in that gray space, living and thriving in the shadows between provability and denial.
—
Los Angeles Times,
Los Angeles Times,
17 Apr. 2026
The walls disappeared into a forest of trees, where live monkeys and at least one bear lurked behind the trunks.