gobble hole

English

Noun

gobble hole (plural gobble holes)

1. (pinball) A hole in a pinball table that ends play of the current ball if the ball falls down it.
   • 1987, Gerald Henry Levin, Prose models:

     Pinball is a metaphor for life, pitting man's skill, nerve, persistence, and luck against the perverse machinery of human existence. […] But it is replete with perils, too: culs-de-sac, traps, gutters, and gobble holes down which the ball may disappear forever.

   • 1997, Gary Flower, Bill Kurtz, Pinball: the lure of the silver ball:

     Happy Days had nine gobble holes, but no outlanes or gap between the flippers. Each gobble hole would light a square of the backglass's tic-tac-toe board […]