The English expression comes from Jonathan Swift, "Not die here in a rage, like a poisoned rat in a hole," in his letter to Bolingbroke, March 21, 1729.

The original draws up the image of the angry snarling rat. As Jenni said rats are social creatures they don't "hole up" on their own, so to speak.

In fact your student may simply being thinking of the other English expression "hole up," which does convey the idea of going off alone -- which people sometimes do to get the quiet to get word done.

Here's "hole up."
hole up
2. Informal To take refuge in or as if in a hideout.
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009.

The older "not die" phrase shows up widely in written literature. Here's one from the New York Times, May 17, 1870.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9E02E4D71E3CE...

It's an article titled, Fun Ahead, which were the last words of a porter on a freight train just before the freight train hit a passenger train. The accident killed the porter and 18 others.

"The one dies 'like a poisoned rat in a hole,' the other has a chance of evading the destroyer."

I think your student is creating a mixed metaphor drawing on the much more recent image of Saddam Hussein before he was captured -- living alone in a hole and the "hole up," which does not have the rage of a trapped rat.


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Note added at 1 hr (2010-03-11 15:15:23 GMT)
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CORRECTION OF MY TYPO:

"get work done", not "get word done."