Meaning
To unfairly categorize a person into a narrow, rigid group or label, ignoring the complexity of who they actually are.
It’s usually said critically, objecting to a lazy or unfair snap judgment rather than a considered, accurate assessment.
Origin
The image comes from old writing desks and filing furniture fitted with small square compartments, called pigeonholes because they resembled the nesting boxes built into dovecotes for pigeons. Clerks and administrators used these compartments from at least the nineteenth century to sort letters, documents, and papers into fixed categories, one slot per type. The figurative use — mentally sorting a person into one such fixed slot, as though they were a piece of correspondence rather than a whole individual — followed naturally from this office furniture and is recorded in English by the mid-nineteenth century, carrying from the start the same faint criticism it has today: a person, unlike a letter, rarely fits neatly into just one category.
Examples
People love to pigeonhole him as “just an athlete,” ignoring his work as an engineer.
Critics tried to pigeonhole the band as a one-genre act, but their new album proved otherwise.
Don’t pigeonhole her as shy just because she’s quiet in meetings.
A: Everyone thinks I only do comedy. B: Yeah, people love to pigeonhole actors.
Frequently asked questions
What does 'Pigeonhole someone' mean?
To unfairly categorize a person into a narrow, rigid group or label, ignoring the complexity of who they actually are.
It’s usually said critically, objecting to a lazy or unfair snap judgment rather than a considered, accurate assessment.