smokehole

English

House with a shuttered smokehole (Tlingit people, 19th century)

Etymology

From smoke +‎ hole.

Noun

smokehole (plural smokeholes)

1. A hole in the top of a building, especially a basic building or structure such as a tipi or yurt, through which smoke can exit.
   • 1788, John Trusler, “Travels through Siberia and Tartary”, in The Habitable World Described‎^[1], volume 3, London, page 181:

     The ovens they now build are well vaulted, with vent-holes on the sides, just underneath the roof, and a chimney closed at top, having a smoke-hole on each side. Through these smoke-holes no spark can get, so as to set fire to the straw spread about it, and the whole kiln is thus preserved from taking fire, owing to the chimney’s being closed at top.

   • 1896, Neil Munro, “Black Murdo”, in The Lost Pibroch, and Other Sheiling Stories‎^[2], Edinburgh: W. Blackwood, page 129:

     Wind and rain fought it out on Cladich brae, and when it was not the wind that came bold through the smoke-hole in the roof, ’twas the rain, a beady slant that hissed on the peats like roasting herrings.

   • 1937, J. R. R. Tolkien, chapter 7, in The Hobbit, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, published 2012:

     A splash of white on the floor came from the high moon, which was peering down through the smoke-hole in the roof.

   • 1941, Emily Carr, “Ucluelet”, in Klee Wyck‎^[3], Oxford University Press:

     Each of the large houses was the home of several families. The door and the smoke-hole were common to all, but each family had its own fire with its own things round it.

   • 1996, George R. R. Martin, A Game of Thrones‎^[4]:

     Drifting sparks floated up and out of the smokehole.

Translations

hole through which smoke can exit

• Bashkir: төндөк (töndök)
• Irish: poll deataigh m, poll toite m, toiteachán m
• Latin: fūmāriolum n (Late Latin)
• Navajo: chʼíláyiʼ
• Russian: дымово́е отве́рстие n (dymovóje otvérstije)