Hole.

Pick a hole in his coat. To find out some cause of blame. The allusion is to the Roman custom of dressing criminals in rags (Livy, ii. 61): Hence, a holey coat is a synonym for guilt.

“Hear, Land oʹ cakes and brither Scots

Frae Maidenkirk to Johnny Groat’s

If there’s a hole in a your coats

I rede you tent it;

A chield’s amang you taking notes,

And, faith, heʹll prent it.”

Burns: On the late Capt. Grose, stanza 1.

· ·

Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.