ditch, moat, canal
堀 centers on a dug-out channel for water: a ditch, moat, or canal. All three meanings are specific types of excavated waterways.
堀 combines 土 (earth) with 屈, which likely contributes the sound and the idea of bending or hollowing out, suggesting earth dug out to form a channel.
The left side is earth 土, and the right side 屈 suggests something bent or hollowed. Picture digging into the earth to create a curved ditch or moat.
For クツ, imagine a canal so deep it could swallow your boots: boots -> クツ, and the ditch swallows them whole.
moat; fosse
canal
canal
outer moat (of a castle)
man-made water channel (e.g. round a castle); artificial trench; moat
fish pond (artificially stocked); fishing pond
digging deeply (below the surface); mining deep
inner moat; moat within the castle walls
dry moat
canal; waterway; ditch
to dig up messily
side of a moat
to be clear of obstacles in the way of one's objective
to remove obstacles in the way of one's objective; to take an indirect approach; to fill in the outer moat
kobori; swimming while wearing armor
moat; horizontal trench
irrigation ditch
ascending trench or pathway cut into a naturally-occurring slope