What is "glory hole"

Glory \Glo"ry\ (gl[=o]"r[y^]; 111), n. [OE. glorie, OF. glorie, gloire, F. gloire, fr. L. gloria; prob. akin to Gr. kle`os, Skr. [,c]ravas glory, praise, [,c]ru to hear. See Loud.]

1. Praise, honor, admiration, or distinction, accorded by common consent to a person or thing; high reputation; honorable fame; renown.

   Glory to God in the highest.
   --Luke ii. 14.

   Spread his glory through all countries wide.
   --Spenser.

2. That quality in a person or thing which secures general praise or honor; that which brings or gives renown; an object of pride or boast; the occasion of praise; excellency; brilliancy; splendor.

   Think it no glory to swell in tyranny.
   --Sir P. Sidney.

   Jewels lose their glory if neglected.
   --Shak.

   Your sex's glory 't is to shine unknown.
   --Young.

3. Pride; boastfulness; arrogance.

   In glory of thy fortunes.
   --Chapman.

4. The presence of the Divine Being; the manifestations of the divine nature and favor to the blessed in heaven; celestial honor; heaven.

   Thou shalt guide me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory.
   --Ps. lxxiii. 24.

5. An emanation of light supposed to proceed from beings of peculiar sanctity. It is represented in art by rays of gold, or the like, proceeding from the head or body, or by a disk, or a mere line.

   Note: This is the general term; when confined to the head it is properly called nimbus; when encircling the whole body, aureola or aureole.

   Glory hole, an opening in the wall of a glass furnace, exposing the brilliant white light of the interior.
   --Knight.

   Glory pea (Bot.), the name of two leguminous plants ( Clianthus Dampieri and C. puniceus) of Australia and New Zeland. They have showy scarlet or crimson flowers.

   Glory tree (Bot.), a name given to several species of the verbenaceous genus Clerodendron, showy flowering shrubs of tropical regions.

"a drawer or place where things are heaped together in a disorderly manner," 1825, the first element probably a variant of Scottish glaur "to make muddy" (mid-15c.), perhaps from Old Norse leir "mud." Sexual (originally homosexual) sense from 1940s.

n. 1 (context mining English) originally, a hole in a mineshaft where an orebody is mined upwards until it breaks through the surface into the open air. 2 (context slang sexual English) a hole in a screen or wall big enough to allow an erect penis to be stuck through, made to facilitate anonymous sex with another person. 3 (context slang English) a military trench. 4 (context glassblowing English) A hole in the side of a furnace used to heat glass held on a metal rod 5 (context slang Scottish and northern England English) a deep built-in cupboard under the eaves or stairs of a house used for general storage, particularly of unrelated or unwanted items stored in some disorder 6 (context slang naval English) in merchant and Royal Navy: 7 # In the Navy this refers to a place for general untidinesses. 8 # On passenger liners the Stewards' mess is referred to as the the 'glory hole' 9 # On coal-burning tramp steamers, the stokehold was referred to as the 'glory hole' 10 An excavation into the sea floor designed to protect the wellhead equipment installed at the surface of a petroleum well from icebergs or pack ice.

n. a small locker at the stern of a boat or between decks of a ship [syn: lazaretto]

Glory hole may refer to:

• Glory hole (mining), surface depression produced by block caving in underground mining
• Glory hole (petroleum production), a type of underwater excavation
• Glory hole (sexual slang), a hole in a wall, or other partition, through which people engage in sexual activity
• Gloryhole (album), album by Texas noise rock band Ed Hall
• Glory hole (glassblowing), the second furnace in glassblowing used for reheating
• Glory hole (spillway), a design of an uncontrolled spillway design
• Glory hole, an untidy cupboard (informal)

A glory hole (also spelled gloryhole and glory-hole) is a hole in a wall, or other partition, often between public lavatory stalls or adult video arcade booths, for people to engage in sexual activity or observe the person in the next cubicle while one or both parties masturbate. In addition to the penis, fingers or the tongue may be inserted into the hole.

Glory holes are especially associated with gay male culture, and anal or oral sex, but may also be used by bisexual or heterosexual men, or by men who do not identify as gay, bisexual, or heterosexual. The partition maintains anonymity. Some gay websites offer directories of glory holes, and people sometimes install private glory holes within their residences.

Glory holes are sometimes the topic of erotic literature, and pornographic films have been devoted to the uses of glory holes.

A glory hole in the context of the offshore petroleum industry is an excavation into the sea floor designed to protect the wellhead equipment installed at the surface of a petroleum well from icebergs or pack ice. An economically attractive alternative for exploiting offshore petroleum resources is a floating platform; however, ice can pose a serious hazard to this solution. While floating platforms can be built to withstand ice loading up to a design threshold, for the largest icebergs or the thickest pack ice the only sensible alternative is to move out of the way. Floating platforms can be disconnected from the wellheads in order to allow them to be moved away from threatening ice, but the wellhead equipment is fixed in place and hence vulnerable.

The keel of an iceberg or pack ice can extend far below the surface of the water. If this keel extends deep enough to make contact with the sea floor, it will scour the sea floor as the ice moves with the current. To protect the wellhead equipment from possible scouring, a glory hole is excavated into the sea floor. This excavation must be deep enough to allow adequate clearance between the top of the wellhead equipment and the surrounding sea floor. The resulting glory hole can be either open or cased. A cased glory hole utilizes steel casing as a retaining wall while an open glory hole is simply an excavation.

Due to the cost of excavating individual glory holes, typically each glory hole will contain several wellheads. Locating multiple wellheads within a single glory hole is made possible by the use of directional drilling.