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With holes, I hold.

With holes, I am whole.

Try to make more, and there are less.

Try to make more, and I am less.

What am I?

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    $\begingroup$ I have asked someone this riddle before, and I have heard answers that compare well enough to my own. If you have an answer that matches the riddle, even if it's not my original answer, I will accept it as long as your reasoning is thorough. $\endgroup$
    – Man_Over_Game
    Jul 9, 2018 at 17:31
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    $\begingroup$ Suggested title: "Riddled with (w)holes" $\endgroup$
    – maxathousand
    Jul 10, 2018 at 18:24

3 Answers 3

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The answer is

a Net
Reasoning:

With holes, I hold.
-It holds things inside even though it is made of holes. Like fishing or butterfly net.

With holes, I am whole.
-A net is complete even with all the holes (empty space).

Try to make more, and there are less.
-If you cut a hole in a net, there are now less holes than what you started with (pretty cool actually)

Try to make more, and I am less.
-Once you cut a hole in a net, it now has less value/functionality than before.

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    $\begingroup$ This is 100% correct, with the exact reasoning to each line. Well done! I am glad that once the answer was found, none of the lines were ambiguous. $\endgroup$
    – Man_Over_Game
    Jul 9, 2018 at 18:42
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    $\begingroup$ +1 for the 'pretty cool actually'! $\endgroup$
    – Vincent
    Jul 10, 2018 at 10:33
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    $\begingroup$ Awesome, very clever question! took me a while to come up with that answer, glad to hear it's correct :) $\endgroup$
    – Starkle
    Jul 10, 2018 at 19:55
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What am I?

A sponge.

With holes, I hold.

A sponge has holes, but it holds water by soaking it up.

With holes, I am whole.

Although a sponge has holes, it is undamaged and in one piece.

Try to make more, and there are less.

Try to make more water, and there are less because the sponge soaks it up.

Try to make more, and I am less.

Try to make more clean dishes by scrubbing with your sponge and eventually it will break tear. $\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\qquad\;$A better word to describe it, as opposed to "break". $\Large\;\style{display: inline-block; transform: rotate(90deg)}{\Lsh}$

This is not the answer, as the answer has already been accepted, but I would like to share this thought.

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A possible alternative?

You are

the universe.

With holes, I hold

The universe has black holes, but it contains everything.

With holes, I am whole

The universe is entire despite having black holes.

Try to make more, and there are less

Black holes consume everything surrounding it, so less matter.

Try to make more, and I am less

More black holes means more matter being swallowed up, so there is less in the universe.

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  • $\begingroup$ This deserves my upvote, but dang this bloody voting limit... I am sure Stephen Hawking would like this one :) $\endgroup$
    – Mr Pie
    Jul 10, 2018 at 12:45
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    $\begingroup$ My one gripe is that black holes don't remove matter from the universe. Otherwise, solid answer! $\endgroup$
    – Man_Over_Game
    Jul 10, 2018 at 15:10

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