Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) the stocks.

1592		Greene Disputation Betweene a Hee and a Shee Conny-Catcher (1923) 38: I dare scarce speake of Bridewell because my shoulders tremble at the name of it, yet looke but in there, and you shall heare poore men with their handes in their Piggen hoales crye, Oh fie vpon whoores, when Fouler giues them the terrible lash.
1614		Jonson Bartholomew Fair IV iv: Down with him in His Majesty’s name, down, down with him, and carry him away, to the pigeon-holes.
1694		J. Eachard (trans.) Plautus’s Rudens III xiv: He’ll be stock’d into the Pigeon Holes, where I’m afraid the poor Devil must make his Nest to night.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).

2. an inferior gambling club [its dimensions but note pigeon n.¹ (2)].

1827

Guards 51: [T]he common hells, the rookeries and pigeon- holes, cobweb warehouses and fly-traps, where the Greek committee sits nightly.

3. the vagina.

1890–1904

Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.