in the hole vs tally

in the hole

prep
  • Having suffered net losses; in debt. 

  • Of a card ("the hole card") which is dealt face down and thus unknown to all but its holder; hence (idiomatic) in reserve; in particular ace in the hole. 

tally

noun
  • A ribbon on a sailor's cap bearing the name of the ship or the (part of) the navy to which they belong. 

  • A tally shop. 

  • A notch, mark, or score made on or in a tally; as, to make or earn a score or tally in a game. 

  • One thing made to suit another; a match; a mate. 

  • Any account or score kept by notches or marks, whether on wood or paper, or in a book, especially one kept in duplicate. 

  • One of two books, sheets of paper, etc., on which corresponding accounts were kept. 

verb
  • To count something. 

  • To make things correspond or agree with each other. 

  • To mathematically calculate a numeric result. 

  • To keep score. 

  • To correspond or agree. 

  • To record something by making marks. 

  • To check off, as parcels of freight going inboard or outboard. 

intj
  • Target sighted. 

How often have the words in the hole and tally occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )