China232.com Blog

Learn about us and learn English!
« Taking something in stride
Is complacency hurting your English learning? »

To “pigeonhole” someone

A pigeon is a type of bird, and a pigeon hole is a very small hole made in a piece of wood for pigeons to stay in. This hole is only slightly bigger than the pigeon, so the pigeon has little room to move.

If you “pigeon hole” someone, it means that you make too many generalizations about that person based on a steriotype. It’s a bad thing to “pigeonhole” people. For example, a common steriotype is that accountants are a little boring. If you meet an accountant and think that he must be boring just because he is an accountant, you are pigeonholing him.

You could say to someone, “You shouldn’t pigeonhole all accountants as being boring. I know a few accountants who are a lot of fun to hang out with.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 27th, 2007 at 4:40 am and is filed under Phrases and idioms. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “To “pigeonhole” someone”

  1. shanie Says:
    November 2nd, 2007 at 8:53 pm

    pigeonhole should be used together, right? so need the title to be changed?

  2. Yu er Says:
    December 7th, 2007 at 8:41 am

    Hello , Andrew :
    All the idoms and slangs you posted are very helpful to me .
    I know you through English baby .
    Really appreciated all your help .

  3. $anchor$basketball Betting,final Four,final Four Betting,final Four Gambling,final Four Sports Book,final Four Sportsbook,march Madness,march Madness Betting,march Madness Gambling,march Madness Sports Book,march Madness Sportsbook,ncaa,ncaa Betting,ncaa Says:
    March 9th, 2008 at 5:34 am

    $anchor$basketball Betting,final Four,final Four Betting,final Four Gambling,final Four Sports Book,final Four Sportsbook,march Madness,march Madness Betting,march Madness Gambling,march Madness Sports Book,march Madness Sportsbook,ncaa,ncaa Betting,…

    $anchor$basketball Betting,final Four,final Four Betting,final Four Gambling,final Four Sports Book,final Four Sportsbook,march Madness,march Madness Betting,march Madness Gambling,march Madness Sports Book,march Madness Sportsbook,ncaa,ncaa Betting,nc…

  4. Bedroom Feng Shui Says:
    April 10th, 2008 at 8:55 pm

    Bedroom Feng Shui…

    Bedroom Feng Shui…

Leave a Reply