All 14 Uses of
loophole
in
Treasure Island
- Well, on the knoll, and enclosing the spring, they had clapped a stout loghouse fit to hold two score of people on a pinch and loopholed for musketry on either side.†
Chpt 16
- And at that, up I jumped, and rubbing my eyes, ran to a loophole in the wall.†
Chpt 19 *loophole = something left out of a rule that makes it possible to evade a difficulty or obligation
- I will confess that I was far too much taken up with what was going on to be of the slightest use as sentry; indeed, I had already deserted my eastern loophole and crept up behind the captain, who had now seated himself on the threshold, with his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands, and his eyes fixed on the water as it bubbled out of the old iron kettle in the sand.†
Chpt 20
- The doctor's watch were all back at their loopholes, the rest were busy loading the spare muskets, and everyone with a red face, you may be certain, and a flea in his ear, as the saying is.†
Chpt 21loopholes = things left out of a rules that make it possible to evade difficulties or obligations
- On the two short sides of the house, east and west, there were only two loopholes; on the south side where the porch was, two again; and on the north side, five.†
Chpt 21
- Mr. Trelawney, you are the best shot—you and Gray will take this long north side, with the five loopholes; it's there the danger is.†
Chpt 21
- If the mutineers succeeded in crossing the stockade, he argued, they would take possession of any unprotected loophole and shoot us down like rats in our own stronghold.†
Chpt 21loophole = something left out of a rule that makes it possible to evade a difficulty or obligation
- The head of Job Anderson, the boatswain, appeared at the middle loophole.†
Chpt 21
- At the same moment, another pirate grasped Hunter's musket by the muzzle, wrenched it from his hands, plucked it through the loophole, and with one stunning blow, laid the poor fellow senseless on the floor.†
Chpt 21
- Another had been shot at a loophole in the very act of firing into the house and now lay in agony, the pistol still smoking in his hand.†
Chpt 21
- Hunter lay beside his loophole, stunned; Joyce by his, shot through the head, never to move again; while right in the centre, the squire was supporting the captain, one as pale as the other.†
Chpt 21
- Out of the eight men who had fallen in the action, only three still breathed—that one of the pirates who had been shot at the loophole, Hunter, and Captain Smollett; and of these, the first two were as good as dead; the mutineer indeed died under the doctor's knife, and Hunter, do what we could, never recovered consciousness in this world.†
Chpt 22
- I turned to the loophole nearest me and looked out.†
Chpt 29
- He must have risen in the dark, for the day had hardly come; and when I ran to a loophole and looked out, I saw him standing, like Silver once before, up to the mid-leg in creeping vapour.†
Chpt 30
Definitions:
-
(1)
(loophole) a gap in a rule, allowing avoidance of the rule's core intent -- especially in the text of a law or contract
-
(2)
(meaning too rare to warrant focus) Less commonly, loophole can refer to a small opening in a castle that provides light and air, and allows an arrow to be fired from within. The opening is narrow enough that it is largely protects from incoming arrows.