"pilot hole" - Word of the Day from the OED

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pilot hole, n.

DRAFT ENTRY Mar. 2009

Brit. /plt hl/, U.S. /palt (h)ol/  [< PILOT n. + HOLE n.] 

    1. Mining and Oil Industry. An exploratory or preliminary hole.

1913 L. WHITE Catskill Water Supply xix. 601 Fourteen-foot pilot holes were next driven vertically, again striking water. 1919 Times 20 Nov. 22/3 Mining News... Cementation diamond drills pilot hole struck solid quartz. 1932 Amer. Speech 7 269 Language of the California Oil Fields... Pilot-hole, a small hole sometimes drilled ahead of the full-sized hole. 1992 Proc. National Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 89 6045/2 Hydrocarbons have also been encountered in deep drilling in basement rocks, as in..the pilot hole of the German Continental Deep Drilling Project.

    2. A small hole drilled in order to facilitate the accurate drilling of a larger hole or the insertion of a screw.

1924 Industr.-Arts Mag. Apr. 130/1 Measure the distance between the pilot holes. 1931 E. P. VAN LEUVEN Cold Metal Working iv. 50 In drilling the large holes make a small pilot hole first. 1962 W. H STEVENS in G. A. T. Burdett Automatic Control Handbk. viii. 61 Separate panels are now cut from the multiple boards, and the fixing and component holes are drilled... Registration of the holes with the circuit is achieved by means of the pilot holes. 1997 Pract. Householder Oct. 36/2 Drill a pilot hole for the screw thread through both components, then enlarge the hole in the piece you're attaching to accept the screw shank.

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