核心畫面

Picture dry open country with one low spot that still holds water. Everything alive for miles knows where it is, so at the end of the day they all arrive: animals that usually avoid each other end up standing around the same edge, because there is nowhere else to drink. Both meanings of watering hole can be thought of as that one picture. Keep the animals in it and you have the pool itself. Swap in people after work, standing around the same small bar week after week, and you have the other meaning, joke and all.

可以想成一片乾乾的曠野,只有一個低窪還留著水。方圓幾公里的活物都知道它在哪,所以傍晚大家都會到:平常互相避開的動物,更多收起可以想成一片乾乾的曠野,只有一個低窪還留著水。方圓幾公里的活物都知道它在哪,所以傍晚大家都會到:平常互相避開的動物,這時候站在同一個水邊,因為沒有別的地方可以喝。watering hole 的兩個意思,都可以想成同一個畫面。畫面裡放動物,就是那個水坑本身。把動物換成下班的人,一週又一週站在同一間小店裡,就是另一個意思,連那個玩笑一起換過去。

From the picture

人喝一杯聚的那間店

同一個畫面換成人。因為原本的畫面是「固定的那一個點」,搬到人身上之後也保留了這一層,所以它多半指常去的那一間,而不是隨便一間酒吧。來源把這個用法標成非正式。

noun · B2

A bar or similar place where people go to drink, usually alcohol, and to sit and talk.

常去喝一杯的店;酒吧

Also in this word

noun · B2

A small pool or dip in the ground where water collects and where wild animals come to drink.

水坑;動物飲水的水源