0 one of a set of small boxes, open at the front, in which letters and messages are left for different people: --
1 to have an often unfair idea of what type someone or something is: --
Consultants found the experience frustrating - their reports were only partly implemented, or, worse still, just pigeonholed.
He is a film producer who can't be conveniently pigeonholed.
2 to put someone or something into a group or type, often unfairly: --
3 to form a fixed and often unfair idea of what someone or something is like: --
4 one of a set of small boxes along a wall in which mail, messages, etc. can be left: --
5 disapproving a particular group of similar things that people or things are put into: --
put sb/sth in a pigeonhole My boss put me in a pigeonhole, so I was never considered for work in other departments.