Brewer's: Hawse-hole

He has crept through the hawse-hole, or He has come in at the hawse-hole. That is, he entered the service in the lowest grade; he rose from the ranks. A naval phrase. The hawse-hole of a ship is that through which the cable of the anchor runs.

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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