|
Reader question: Please explain “full of holes” in this passage: The attorneys said the alleged victim’s story is “full of holes”. What holes? My comments: It’s not meant to be taken literally. Obviously, a fishing net is full of holes. A kitchen sieve, too, is full of holes through which water passes. Thus designed, a sieve is perfect for washing and rinsing fruits and vegetables. However, because of the holes, a sieve cannot be expected to hold water, which simply seeps through the little holes. Hence and metaphorically speaking if someone’s story is “full of holes”, then their story cannot hold water either. By that, we understand that their tale is not true. It’s not credible. Their reasoning, for example, must be full of faults and flaws, or the story contains factual inconsistences and contradictions. Such a story, in the words of Mr Utterson, the lawyer in Robert Lewis Stevenson’s famous Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, “doesn’t commend itself to reason.” Or logic. A story that is full of holes, in short, is full of flaws and therefore not believable. All right. No more ado. Let’s read a few media examples of things that are fraught with holes, i.e. deeply flawed: 1. At first, there was neither pain nor fear, only an unfamiliar warmth flooding his chest. Then he remembered the cow and her kicking back leg. Then he realized how hard it was to see. | 
