From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpigeonholepi‧geon‧hole1 /ˈpɪdʒənhəʊl $ -hoʊl/ noun [countable] TCMone of a set of small open boxes fixed to a wall. You leave letters, messages etc for particular people in the boxes.
Examples from the Corpus
pigeonhole• There were empty arched pigeonholes at the back, fretted and carved, and two empty little drawers.• The male experience is seen as a universal experience, while the female experience is put in a different pigeonhole.• The judicial difficulties that arise when fitting variation into pigeonholes are testimony to evolution.• Hence Buckshot LeFonque, a group devoted to the idea of making pigeonholes a thing of the past.• Surely the people shoved in and out of these pigeonholes have not themselves changed so vastly and so often.• She got up and crossed to a little antique rosewood desk with pigeonholes and tiny drawers along the top.pigeonholepigeonhole2 verb [transitive] TYPEto unfairly consider a person, activity etc as belonging to a particular type or group SYN labelpigeonhole somebody/something as something Patsy was pigeonholed as a Country and Western singer, but that’s too simple.→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
pigeonhole• The new president is not easily pigeonholed.• Most people don't think of him as a real actor. He is pigeonholed as an action movie star.• It is difficult to decide whether Sun and Peng can be pigeonholed as belonging to a particular school, trend or coterie.• Joe Kennedy, like Clinton, is not easily pigeonholed as liberal, very much like his anti-bigness, pro-empowerment father.• You shouldn't pigeonhole people according to your first impressions of them.• Bird-watchers have an austere view of existence: that which can not be pigeonholed should be shot.• When your band becomes successful, people immediately try to pigeonhole you, but we're into all kinds of music - dance, rock, jazz, blues.From Longman Business Dictionarypigeonholepi‧geon‧hole1 /ˈpɪdʒənhəʊl-hoʊl/ verb [transitive] to consider a person, activity etc as belonging to a particular type or group, in a way that is too simple and therefore unfairSYNLABELElectronic books and multimedia had originally been pigeonholed as a small, exclusive market.→ See Verb tablepigeonholepigeonhole2 noun [countable]OFFICE one of a set of small boxes in a frame on a wall, in which you can put letters etc for people to collect, or one of a set of small boxes that are part of a deskI left a copy of the report in your pigeonhole. 