Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to take up residence, with a possible but not invariable implication of hiding away or taking refuge.

1875		Burroughs Winter Sunshine 279: I was compelled to ‘hole up’ in my state room.
1892		J.C. Duval Adventures of Jack Dobell 44: I had a great inclination to ‘hole up’ myself.
1907		S.E. White Arizona Nights 12: After the rain that had held us holed up at the Double River.
1917		Boy’s Own Paper XL:3 148: Holed up like a bear ’till the storm blowed by, didn’t yo, pardner?
1924		D. Hammett ‘The Tenth Clew’ in Continental Op (1975) 33: He’ll be holed up somewhere until he sees how things are going.
1935		J. Conroy World to Win 325: You soon came back to your milk when you had decided to hole up down in Roosevelt Roost.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 320: I was holed up with my boys Travis and Frankie Ward.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 66: We holed in a motel outside Pueblo and cut up the money.
1957		Mad mag. Nov.–Dec. 36: Doc Holliday is holed up in hotel room with girlfriend, Kate.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 52: Tell us where they’re holed up.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 25: He’d passed the corner where the mark was holed in.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 53: [as 1957].
1977		C. McFadden Serial 96: Harv holes up and reads about earwigs.
1987		T. Wolfe Bonfire of the Vanities 527: I’m holed up in my apartment and Park Avenue is occupied by a mob waiting to kill me.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 78: No one knows we’re holed here.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 428: You try to make it on your own, holing up in some basement with an old blanket wrapped around you, fighting the sickness in solitude.
1998		R.G. Barrett Goodoo Goodoo 258: And you’ve been holed up here in Amethyst Bay ever since.
2000		Indep. Rev. 21 Jan. 7: A mother of three, is holed up in the working class enclave of Glenbryn.
2004		L. Redhead Peepshow [ebook] We holed up in the room and fucked.
2008		T. Dorsey Atomic Lobster 86: Got excellent photos of the room where the main characters holed up before Eddie wigged.
2009		L. McIlvanney All the Colours 104: [I]t felt safer to hole up in the Whip and Saddle Bar.
2014		M. Cebula ‘Larry’s Proposal’ in ThugLit Mar. [ebook] He knew he was in a bad spot, that he should hole up somewhere.
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 31: You jist stey holed up in the Balmoral till it aw blaws ower.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] [He] holed himself up in a logger’s shack.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Broken’ in Broken 22: ‘No one knows where he holes up’.
2021		A. Parks April Dead 83: ‘Maybe he had a local girlfriend, maybe he’s holed up with her’.