diphole n NEng, chiefly VT Cf pitchhole n 1
An abrupt dip in a road.
1861 Greenfield Democrat (MA) 1 Feb 2/6, There is an immense body of snow on the ground. The travelling is very bad, the roads being full of “dipholes,” and the high, hard banks rendering it difficult to turn out. 1870 VT Christian Messenger (Montpelier) 18 Aug 1/4, Unaccountable dipholes welcome us warmly and eject us simultaneously. The coach window positively refuses to be closed. 1898 VT Phoenix (Brattleboro) 4 Mar 6/4, His sleigh dropped into a “dip hole” on Central street striking the heels of the horse. 1918 Brattleboro Daily Reformer (VT) 16 Feb 8/4, A load of logs got into difficulty this noon on Main street. . . It plunged into a deep dip-hole and when the front sled emerged on the other side the kingbolt came out. 1935 Springfield Daily Republican (MA) 4 Feb 2/3, It is likely that as the sleigh struck a “dip-hole” at the entrance to the bridge the sleigh was overturned and all the occupants were thrown out. 1954 Hartland News (VT) 17 May 7/2, Howland asked to have some unselected money spent to fix the dip-hole beyond Lyman’s place; this job needs doing as it is a hazard which the school bus and others have to use. 1966–68 DARE (Qu. N30, . . A sudden short dip in the road) Inf ME9, Diphole; VT4, Dipholes—old term, used for hole filled with snow then crossed with a sleigh. 1967 DARE Tape VT1, [FW:] Someone was telling me about a very difficult thing, when the roads would get bad—a deep depression in the road, like this, where if you were driving with a sleigh, and the horse and the sleigh got down in it, it could snap the shafts. Did you ever run across a thing like that? [Inf:] Oh yes, when the snow was deep. . . What did we call those? . . Dipholes, . . dipholes is what we used to call them anyway.