Loophole
noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Definitions
- 1 A slit in a castle wall; today, any similar window for shooting a ranged weapon or letting in light. historical
"[…] and having a fair loophole, as it were, from a broken hole in the tree, he took a sure aim, without being seen, waiting till they were within about thirty yards of the tree, so that he could not miss."
- 2 a small hole in a fortified wall; for observation or discharging weapons wordnet
- 3 A method of escape, especially an ambiguity or exception in a rule or law that can be exploited in order to avoid its effect. figuratively
"Coupling the poor girl's intelligence with my previous knowledge, and the result of our good friend's inquiries on the spot, I left him no loophole of escape, and laid bare the whole villany which by these lights became plain as day."
- 4 an ambiguity (especially one in the text of a law or contract) that makes it possible to evade a difficulty or obligation wordnet
- 1 To prepare a building for defense by preparing slits or holes through which to fire on attackers transitive
"The lower windows were barricaded, and the whole building loopholed for musketry fire."
- 2 To exploit (a law, etc.) by means of loopholes. transitive
"Abroad they had developed loopholing the law into an art; in Israel they jettisoned loopholing for ignoring the law wherever possible. Obeying laws was for naive fools."
Example
More examples"A loophole in the law allowed him to escape prosecution."
Etymology
From Middle English loupe (“opening in a wall”) + hole, from a Germanic source. Compare Medieval Latin loupa, lobia and Middle Dutch lupen (“to watch”).
Related phrases
More for "loophole"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.