pothole
New York Todayです。文脈からも明らかなようにpotholeは「（道路の）くぼみ，深い穴」を意味します。Websterには、"a deep, round hole in a road or some other surface (such as the bottom of a river"とあります。
道路にできたpotholeは、なにもNYCだけではなく日本でも春の到来をつげて（？）くれるものです。なお、向こうにいたときには、chuckholeという言い方もよく聞きました。（ninetails@Hakone）
New York Today: Pothole Season
Good chilly Monday morning to you.
On Saturday around midnight, several police officers stood looking at something on Court Street in Brooklyn.
“They’re everywhere,” said one officer, who was not authorized to give his name.
“They’re bad.”
The object of their investigation was a two-foot-long pothole. (Their solution was putting a cardboard box in the pothole, until they could return with a traffic cone).
We are now in high season: Thousands of potholes open up as vehicles pass over asphalt compromised by water — say, melted snow — that has seeped beneath cracked surfaces.
The Department of Transportation has filled more than 145,000 potholes since mid-December.
PS 先生からは、hit a potholeというイディオムをご教示いただきました。
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/A30/20130816/1376583864
