| 释义 |
▪ I. pit, n.1|pɪt|
Forms: see below.
[OE. pytt, ME. pyt(t, pit, put(t, pet = OFris. pet, OS. putti, MLG., MDu. putte, LG. pütte, Du. put, OHG. pfuzzi, pfuzza, MHG., Ger. pfütze; also ON. pyttr (from OE.); all repr. a WGer. *puttjoz, a. L. puteus well, pit, shaft. In ME. the OE. y was repr. in midl. dial. by y, i, in s.w. by u (-y-), and in Kent by e.]
A. Illustration of Forms.
a. (α) 1 pytt, pyt (see B. 1); 2–5 putt, put.
c1175Lamb. Hom. 47 Þe prophete stod in ane putte. c1205Lay. 15961 Þe put wes ilær. c1425Eng. Conq. Irel. 36 Thay burryd an hounde with hym yn the pute that he was yn I-leyde. 1467in Eng. Gilds 385 Puttes of bloode.
(β) 3–4 pett, 4–5 pet, (6 pette).
c1200Vices & Virtues 109 Hie falleð mid ða blinde in to ðan pette. c1315Shoreham Poems vii. 522 Godes domes beþ A groundlyas pet [rime ylet]. 1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 17875, I curse hem in-to helle pet. 1599Breton Praise Vertuous Ladies (Grosart) 57/2 If shee have her hand on the pette in her cheeke.
(γ) 4–6 pytt, pyt, 4–8 pitt, 5– pit, (4 pite, pyte, 4–7 pitte, 5–6 pytte).
13..Cursor M. 4155 In þis wast i wat a pite [v.rr. pitte, pitt, c 1425 pit]. c1400Mandeville (1839) viii. 94 A litylle pytt in the erthe. 1406Hoccleve Misrule 95 Rype vn-to my pit. c1440Promp. Parv. 402/1 Pyt, or flasche where mekyl water standythe. 1535Coverdale 2 Esdras v. 24 Thou hast chosen the one pytt. ― Luke xiv. 5 Fallen in to a pytte. 1588Nottingham Rec. IV. 223 The hye waye above the clay pittes.
B. I. Signification.
1. a. A hole or cavity in the ground, formed either by digging or by some natural process.
847Charter of æthelwulf (Sweet O.E.T. 434), Ðonne on grenan pytt. c893K. ælfred Oros. v. ii. §1 And on pyttas besuncan. c1000Ags. Gosp. Matt. xii. 11 ᵹyf þæt afylð reste-daᵹum on pytt. c1175[see A. α]. a1225Ancr. R. 58 Ȝif eni unwrie put were, & best feolle þer inne. a1300Cursor M. 2500 (Cott.) Þe fiue gaue bak..And fell to in a pitt o clay. c1430Life St. Kath. (1884) 51 He þat fedde danyel þe prophet in þe pytte of lyouns. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 276 b, That no man sholde dyg ony pyt..but he sholde couer it agayne. 1588Shakes. Tit. A. ii. iii. 193 The lothsome pit, Where I espied the Panther fast asleepe. 1611Bible Jer. ii. 6 A land of deserts and of pittes. 1855Tennyson Maud i. i. ii, There in the ghastly pit..a body was found.
b. An open deep hole or excavation made in digging for some mineral deposit; often with descriptive word, as chalk-, clay-, gravel-, marl-, sand-pit: see these words, also sense 6.
956[see chalk-pit s.v. chalk n. 7]. 1382Wyclif Gen. xiv. 10 The wodi valei forsothe had manye pyttis of gluwy clay [1388 pittis of pitche; 1535 Coverd. slyme pyttes; 1885 R.V. slime pits]. c1440–[see clay-pit s.v. clay n. 9]. 1604E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Indies iv. iv. 213 The golde..is found in pittes or mines. 1722De Foe Col. Jack (1840) 288 A little kind of a gravel pit, or marl pit.
c. A hole or excavation made for a special purpose in various industries, as sawing, tanning, founding, charcoal-burning, etc.: see quots., and coal-pit 1, sawpit, tan-pit, etc.
1023–[see coal-pit 1]. 1589Pappe w. Hatchet C j b, Martin and his mainteiner are both sawers of timber, but Martin stands in the pit. 1616in Mem. Fountains Abb. (Surtees) I. 365 The tanhouse..with..the pits there. 1663Gerbier Counsel 25 The Sawyers at their Pit. 1875Knight Dict. Mech., Pit... (Founding), a cavity or hollow scooped in the floor to receive cast-metal{ddd}a vat in tanning, bleaching, dyeing, or in washing alum earth, etc. 1876Schultz Leather Manuf. 26 The pits should be covered on the top by timbers. 1881Raymond Mining Gloss., Pit,..a stack or meiler of wood, prepared for the manufacture of charcoal.
d. Agric. and Gardening. A hole or excavation made for storing and protecting edible roots, etc. through the winter (hence extended to a heap of such roots covered with earth or straw for protection); or one (usually with a glazed frame) for protecting young or tender plants.
c1500in Turner Dom. Archit. I. 144 Take many rype walenottes..& put hem in a moiste pytt, & hile hem. 1810,1837Pine pit [see pine n.2 7]. 1813R. Kerr Agric. Surv. Berwick. 293 A pit or pie, is a conical heap of potatoes..resting upon the dry bare ground..carefully covered by a layer of straw..the earth thrown over the straw [etc.]. 1866Brande & Cox Dict. Sc., etc. II. 913/1 They are..what are called cold pits, which means that they are not artificially heated, and are used for the protection in winter of hardy and half-hardy plants. 1895Scully Kafir Stories 102 By probing with their spears..the men easily found the flat stones covering the mouths of the underground corn-pits.
e. A deep hole or chamber in which prisoners were confined, a dungeon. ? Obs. exc. Hist.
1512Act 4 Hen. VIII, c. 8 Preamb., The said Richard was taken and imprisoned in a doungen and a depe pytt under grounde. 1571–2Reg. Privy Council Scot. II. 111 The said Robertis hous in Ancrum, quhair thai put and kest thame in the pit thairof. 1588Ibid. IV. 284 [They] tuke him..to the said schireffis Castle.., putt him in the pitt thairof, quhairin thay held and detenit him. 1761Chron. in Ann. Reg. 61 The very pit, where the felons are confined at night. 1816Scott Old Mort. ix, I will cause Harrison..look for the key of our pit, or principal dungeon. 1885Bible (R.V.) Jer. xxxviii. 6 Then took they Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon [marg. or pit] of Malchiah.
f. An excavation, covered or otherwise hidden to serve as a trap for wild beasts (or in former times for enemies); a pitfall.
1611Bible Ezek. xix. 4 He [a young lion] was taken in their pit. 1735Somerville Chase iii. 232 Low in the Ground A Pit they sink. 1834Medwin Angler in Wales I. 62 If a fox escapes from a pit, none are ever taken again in the same. 1895Scully Kafir Stories 120 Kondwana the induna,..and one other, had fallen into an old elephant-pit, the surface of which was completely covered over with brushwood.
g. fig. or in figurative phrases; chiefly in prec. sense (f), esp. in biblical use.
c1315[see A. β]. a1340Hampole Psalter vii. 16 He fell in þe pit þat he made. c1532Latimer Serm. & Rem. (Parker Soc.) II. 347 To follow the blind guides, is to come into the pit with the same. 1535Coverdale Prov. xxii. 14 The mouth of an harlot is a depe pytt. 1577F. de L'isle's Legendarie H iij, That..you fall not into any such bottomles pit of debts. 1604Dekker Honest Wh. i. xiii, He fals himselfe that digs anothers pit. 1722De Foe Relig. Courtsh. i. ii. (1840) 42, I would not fall into the pit with my eyes open. 1850Robertson Serm. Ser. ii. ii. (1864) 31 The cold damp pits of disappointment.
h. (a) = engine-pit (b) s.v. engine n. 11 b. Hence used allusively (freq. in pl.) of the area at the side of a motor-racing track where competing cars are prepared and maintained.
1839Chambers's Edin. Jrnl. 7 Dec. 368 Under each engine is a pit three feet deep, which enables the engine⁓men to get underneath to examine and repair it. 1907[see inspection 6]. 1912Collier's 28 Sept. 11/1 Up swoops the racer, rear wheels locked and sliding, thundering and veiled in smoke, and stops at the pit. 1913Technical World Mag. June 492/1 As De Palma passed his rival's pit..one of the attendants reached for a telephone. 1924Brooklands Gaz. Oct. 176/2 F. C. Clayton on his Marseal, had to turn into the pits after eight laps. 1928Evening News 18 Aug. 1/3 He was pulling into the pits to refill. 1930E. Waugh Vile Bodies x. 182 ‘The pits’ turned out to be a line of booths, built of wood and corrugated iron immediately opposite the Grand Stand. Many of the cars had already arrived and stood at their ‘pits’, surrounded by a knot of mechanics and spectators. 1946Sun (Baltimore) 23 Dec. 17/3 Each will have three long maintenance ‘pits’ to accommodate nine busses at one time. 1957Times 16 Oct. 12/6 A man who had a garage and a pit and no car. 1968Listener 5 Sept. 301/3 So there I was, having failed my examinations, working in the pits with Duncan Hamilton. 1972M. Gilbert Body of Girl iv. 44 He climbed out of the pit..and said..‘You've come to buy a car.’ 1973Times 30 Apr. 7/1 Peterson's domination ended abruptly on lap 57 when he brought his car to a halt with a broken gearbox, to receive a huge ovation from the crowd when he walked back to the pits. 1977Times 15 July (Motor Racing Suppl.) p. ii/8 Dron pulled his Dolomite into the pits, mistakenly believing the race was over. But..he managed to pass the flag at the end of the pit road in time to win his class.
2. A hole dug or sunk in the ground for water; a well, a water-hole; a pond, pool. Obs. or merged in 1.
890–901ælfred's Laws Introd. §22 ᵹif hwa adelfe wæter pyt [v.r. pyth (cisternam)] oððe betynedne ontyne. c975Rushw. Gosp. John iv. 12 Ahne arðu mara feder usum iacobe seðe salde us ðiosne pytt & he of him dranc. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 8465 Þat alle þe wateres..& diches & puttes rede of blode þere. 13..K. Alis. 5764 (Bodl. MS.) Hij founden many lake & pett Wiþ trowes & þornes byshette. c1400Apol. Loll. 25 As þe welle mai not bring forþ of o pitte bitter water & swete. c1402Lydg. Compl. Bl. Knt. xiv, Ne lyk the pitte of the Pegace Under Pernaso, where poetes slepte. 1530Palsgr. 254/2 Pytte or well. 1611Bible Lev. xi. 36 A fountain or pit, wherein there is plenty of water, shall be clean. 1626Bacon Sylva §1 Dig a pit upon the seashore..and as the tide cometh in, it will fill with water, fresh and potable.
3. A hole dug in the ground for a dead body; a grave. Obs. or dial. (exc. as applied to a large hole used to receive many bodies: cf. plague-pit in plague n. 4 c.)
1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 11203 Wan a ded man me wole to putte bringe. c1330R. Brunne Chron. Wace (Rolls) 16449 Ȝyf any had leyd a cors in pyt. c1425Cast. Persev. 1584 in Macro Plays 121 Late men þat arn on þe pyttis brynke. 1466in Archæologia (1887) L. i. 49 He shall make the pittes for dead bodies depe Inough. 1565Stapleton tr. Bede's Hist. Ch. Eng. 155 She..semed to be almost dead and at the pitts brimme. 1593Shakes. Rich. II, iv. i. 219 And soone lye Richard in an Earthie Pit. 1611Bible Ps xxx. 3 O Lord..thou hast kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit. [In Eng. Dial. Dict. from Devonsh.]
4. The abode of evil spirits and lost souls; hell, or some part of it, conceived as a sunken place, or as a dungeon or place of confinement. Often in phr. the pit of hell.
a1225Juliana 15 (Bodl. MS.) To forwurðe wið him..iþe putte of helle. a1300Cursor M. 22055 (Cott.) An angel..bar þe kai o þe mikel pijt. c1386Chaucer Pars. T. ⁋96 Vnder hym the horrible put of helle open. c1440York Myst. xxxvii. 348, I synke in to helle pitte. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xxi. 68 Quhen na houss is bot hell and hevin, Palice of licht, or pitt obscure. 1526Tindale Rev. ix. 1 And to him was geven the kaye of the bottomlesse pytt. 1602Shakes. Ham. iv. v. 132 Conscience and Grace, to the profoundest Pit. I dare Damnation. 1678Bunyan Pilgr. i. 76 The Hobgoblins, Satyrs, and Dragons of the Pit. 1827Pollok Course T. x. 476 Into the yawning pit Of bottomless perdition. 1872Morley Voltaire i. (1886) 4 To unmask a demon from the depths of the pit. 1892Speaker 3 Sept. 289/1 Such a one..might take the path that leads to the pit.
5. a. An enclosure in which animals were (or in some countries still are) set to fight for sport; esp. a cockpit.
to fly or shoot the pit, to turn and fly out of the pit, as a craven cock; hence fig. of a person.
a1568R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 127 One Cock..which..doth passe all other..that euer I saw in any pitte. 1627E. F. Hist. Edw. II (1680) 120 Their Friends turn craven, and all forsake the pit before the battle. 1664Butler Hud. ii. iii. 1112 To quit His victory, and fly the pit. 1675Marvell Let. to Sir H. Thompson, He hath a month ago shot the pit..he hath thought convenient to passe over into Holland. 1676― Mr. Smirke Pref. A ij, Had he esteemed..that it was decent for him to have enter'd the Pit with so Scurrilous an Animadverter. 1704Lond. Gaz. No. 4063/4 The..Pens are..built over the Pit. 1741Richardson Pamela (1824) I. 202 We were all to blame, to make madam, here, fly the pit, as she did.
b. The cockpit of a ship: = cockpit 3.
6. An excavation made for obtaining coal; the shaft of a coal-mine; also, often applied to the mine as a whole.
(Orig. the same as in chalk-pit, sand-pit, etc., in sense 1 b, and doubtless going back to the time when the coal-pit was, like these, merely an open excavation; hence also its technical restriction to the shaft, which is the open hole.)
1447–[see coal-pit 2]. 1669Phil. Trans. IV. 967 There being in these Mines an incredible mass of wood to support the Pitts and the Horizontal passages. 1708J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 23 If {pstlg}1000 or more be spent in carrying down a Pit or Shaft. 1725T. Thomas in Portland Papers VI. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) 106 That pit through which they bring up the coal..is called the shaft. 1774Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) I. 81 They were resolved to renew their work in the same pit, and eight of them ventured down..but they had scarce got to the bottom of the stairs that led to the pit..[when] they all instantly dropped down dead. 1845Disraeli Sybil vi. vi, ‘He's a pretty fellow to come and talk to us’, said a collier. ‘He had never been down a pit in all his life’. 1851Greenwell Coal-trade Terms Northumb. & Durh. 38 Pit, a circular, oval, square, or oblong vertical sinking from the surface. The term shaft..is often used as synonymous. 1867W. W. Smyth Coal & Coal mining 118 The pits are 515 yards deep to the ‘top hard’ seam.
7. pit and gallows, more properly gallows and pit, in Sc. Law a phrase understood to denote the privilege, formerly conferred on barons, of executing thieves or other felons by hanging the men on a gallows and drowning the women in a pit: see sense 2. Obs. exc. Hist.
For this, ancient Sc. statutes in L. have furca et fossa. ‘In some old deeds written in our language, these terms are rendered furc and foss’ (Jamieson s.v.). The actual meaning of pit and fossa has been questioned. Du Cange has a quot. from Gervase of Canterbury in which fossa is an ordeal pit; so also in Custumals of Battle Abbey (Camd. Soc. 126); and it has been suggested that this was also the original meaning in furca et fossa. But in support of the usual interpretation, see Laws of æthelstan iv. 6 De fure, qui personam vel locum pacis adierit: §4 Si libera mulier sit, praecipitetur de clivo vel submergatur (Schmid Gesetze der Angels. 151). And cf. Old German Proverbs cited by Grimm Deutsche Rechts-Altertümer, cap. Verbrechen u. Strafe am Leben: (1) Der Mann an den Galgen, die Frau unter den Stein; (2) Den Männern Hinrichtung mit dem Strang, den Frauen mit Wassern; (3) Den Dieb soll man henken und die Hur ertränken. In Middle Dutch, where the parallel phrase putte ende galghen is very frequent, putte was a pit or grave in which women criminals were buried alive (levend begraven): see Verwijs and Verdam s.v. Putte.
[a1153Sc. Acts David I, c. 13 in Scot. Stat. (1844) I. 319 [red] Omnes barones qui habent furcam et fossam de latrocinio. ]1275Rot. Hundred (1818) II. 302/1 Thomas de Furnivall tenet manerium..et habet furcas pitte pillory tumberel [etc.]. a1500transl. quot. a 1153 Al barounis þe quhilkis hes galowys and pyt of thyft. 1609Skene Reg. Maj. i. iv. 6 b, To hald their courts, with sock, sack, gallous, and pit, toll, and thame, infang-thief, and outfang-thief. [orig. qui habent, & tenent curias suas; cum socco & sacca, furca & fossa, Toill, & Theme, Infang-thiefe, & Outfang-thiefe.] 1614Selden Titles Hon. 286 The Gallows vnderstand as Ours, and for men Theiues; and the Pit, a place to drown Women Theiues. c1730Burt Lett. N. Scotl. (1818) II. 149 The heritable power of pit and gallows..is I think too much for any subject to be trusted withal. 1814Scott Wav. x.
II.
†8. A hollow or cavity in any vessel. Obs.
c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xxv. (Julian) 534 Þe gold til hyme þane tuke he sone, And askis in þe pyt has done.
9. A hollow or indentation in an animal or plant body, or in any surface: spec.
a. A natural hollow or depression in the body, as the armpit; a socket, as of the eye, or in a bone at a joint; † a dimple. (In quot. 1818, the central hollow in a flower.) Also as an ellipt. use for ‘armpit’ (slang).
† pit of the chin (obs.), the hollow between the chin and the lower lip. pit of the stomach, the slight depression in the region of the stomach between the cartilages of the false ribs.
c1250Death 241 in O.E. Misc. 182 Also beoð his eȝeputtes ase a bruþen led. c1410Master of Game (MS. Digby 182) v, He shall haue as mony smale pittes [Bodl. MS. puttes] in þe fore legge, as he hath yeres. c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 146 With a little pytte in her well-favored chynne. 1541R. Copland Guydon's Quest. Chirurg. K iv b, Of what shape are y⊇ two focyl bones?.. The greatest hath two pyttes towarde the kne whiche receyue the rounde endes of the thyghe bone. 1585T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. xxi. 59 The holes vnderneath your arm pittes. 1651French Distill. v. 142 Anoint the pit of the stomacke. 1688R. Holme Armoury ii. 84/2 Of a Tree..the Pit or Hole [is] whereat the branches sprout out. 1818Keats Endymion i. 875 Flowers, on their stalks set Like vestal primroses, but dark velvet Edges them round, and they have golden pits. 1834McMurtrie Cuvier's Anim. Kingd. 184 There is a little round indentation or pit behind each nostril. 1847Emerson Poems (1857) 98 In the pit of his eyes. 1893Syd. Soc. Lex., Pit, a depression. Applied medically to the permanent impression made by the finger in œdematous tissues, which are said to pit on pressure. 1965Amer. Speech XL. 194 Pits,..a slang abbreviation of the term armpits,..with an extension of meaning to entail the idea of body odor. 1973M. Amis Rachel Papers 71 Complete body-service..pits clipped, toes manicured, pubic hair permed and styled, each tooth brushed, tongue scraped, nose pruned. 1974E. Brawley Rap (1975) ii. xx. 325 She opened her heavy flippy arms, arms with rolls of honest fat hanging down under her pits. 1977Rolling Stone 7 Apr. 48/2 Simmons answers by spraying his pits with a can of Royal Copenhagen.
b. A depressed scar, such as those left on the skin after small-pox; a similar minute depression or spot upon any surface, produced by chemical action, by a rain-drop, etc.
1677Lond. Gaz. No. 1188/4 A short thick man..some few pits of the Small Pox. 1758Reid tr. Macquer's Chym. I. 323 An exceeding white bead of Silver, the lower part whereof will be unequal, and full of little pits. 1780Hunter in Phil. Trans. LXX. 134 It sometimes happens..that there is a pitt in consequence of a chicken pock. 1852C. Morfit Tanning & Currying (1853) 170 Heat and moisture may dissolve the gelatine, and thus cause the hides to be scarred with pits. 1884Science IV. 273/2 The sandstone surface is distinctly marked by raindrop pits.
c. Bot. A minute depression on the inner side of the wall of a cell or vessel, often perforating it and forming a basin-like pore (bordered pit), as in the wood-cells of conifers, etc.; also, a minute depression on the surface of a seed.
1857Henfrey Elem. Bot. §662 The new layers, applying themselves..over the [cell-] wall, leave certain parts bare, which appear as dots or pits of various forms when viewed from the inside. 1875Bennett & Dyer Sachs' Bot. 20 When contiguous cells are united into a tissue..the pits and pit-channels of both sides meet, and the intermediate thin portion of membrane becomes absorbed; a channel thus arises uniting two cell-spaces (Bordered Pits, perforated septum of vessels). Ibid. 540 The seed..displays a variety of sculpturing, such as pits, warts, bands. 1914M. Drummond tr. Haberlandt's Physiol. Plant Anat. i. 44 These readily permeable spots generally take the shape of sharply defined areas of approximately circular cross-section, known as pits. 1953K. Esau Plant Anat. iii. 39 Secondary cell walls are commonly characterized by the presence of depressions or cavities... Such cavities are termed pits. 1976Bell & Coombe tr. Strasburger's Textbk. Bot. (rev. ed.) 110 If transversely elongated pits are arranged one above the other in the lateral walls the arrangement is said to be scalariform.
10. That part of the auditorium of a theatre which is on the floor of the house; now usually restricted to the part of this behind the stalls. Also transf. the people occupying this. Cf. cockpit 1 b.
1649Lovelace Poems 78 The other [comedy] for the Gentlemen oth' Pit. 1682Dryden Mac Fl. 153 Let Cully, Cockwood, Fopling charm the pit. 1709–10Steele Tatler No. 145 ⁋2 She in a Front Box, he in the Pit next the Stage. 1779Sheridan Critic iii. i, Speak more to the pit..—the soliloquy always to the pit, that's a rule. 1829Lytton Disowned xxxviii, The pit is crowded. 1876Smith Hist. Eng. Lit. 121 The designation parterre, still given by the French to the pit. 1922W. S. Maugham On Chinese Screen xlvii. 186 Declaiming the blank verse of Sheridan Knowles with an emphasis to rouse the pit to frenzy.
b. = orchestra pit s.v. orchestra 4.
1961in Webster. 1966Listener 6 Oct. 517/1 The sheer sound of the orchestra seemed very much bigger than usual, the strings had a bloom that is often lacking, the woodwind sweetness as well as precision; ensemble had improved, including rapport between stage and pit. 1974Belton (S. Carolina) News 18 Apr. 1/2 Hanna High Jazz Ensemble (In the pit throughout the show). 1975Times 17 Sept. 10/4 On the evenings he conducted the sound coming from the pit ranged from the good to the superlative. 1977New Yorker 9 May 132/3 (It is said that Toscanini was the first to sink the pit at La Scala.) The Orpheum, where the Boston ‘Rigoletto’ was done, has no pit, either.
11. U.S. A part of the floor of an Exchange appropriated to a special branch of business, e.g. the grain pit, the wheat pit. Hence,
b. Name of a card-game: see quot. 1904.
1903F. Norris The Pit i. 17 The world's food should not be at the mercy of the Chicago wheat pit. 1903Daily Chron. 11 Feb. 3/3 It is Laura against the Wheat Pit, and the Wheat Pit wins—for a time. 1904Ibid. 12 Nov. 8/5 Society has a new card game, called ‘Pit’... The name ‘Pit’ is suggested by the Wheat Pit..The game is..a mimicry of a Corn Exchange, where every player is trying to make a corner in some particular grain.
12. a. ? A bag-shaped part of a fishing-net.
1883Fisheries Exhib. Catal. 296 A Cotton Eel Bow Net, with two wings and loose pit.
b. A pocket in a garment. slang.
1811Lexicon Balatronicum s.v. Pit, He drew a rare thimble from the swell's pit. He took a handsome watch from the gentleman's pocket. 1927Dialect Notes V. 459 Pit, a pocket. 1938F. D. Sharpe Sharpe of Flying Squad 332 The pit, the inside jacket pocket. 1950H. E. Goldin Dict. Amer. Underworld Lingo 158/2 Pit (among pickpockets), the vest pocket; or, less frequently, the inside breast pocket of coat. 1955D. W. Maurer in Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxiv. 125 The most important pocket in the coat from the pickpocket's point of view is the coat pit, or the inside breast pocket... This is often shortened to pit. 1966Baker Austral. Lang. (ed. 2) vii. 143 A generation ago,..the various pockets were known as..left kick or right kick or pit (trouser pockets).
13. The framework supporting the pivoted yoke of a swinging bell in a belfry.
1874Sir E. Beckett Clocks & Watches 345 The pit, or frame to hold a swing bell, must be a good deal longer than twice the height of the bell.
14. the pits (slang, orig. U.S.), the worst or most despicable example of something; freq. applied to a person considered particularly obnoxious or contemptible.
1953Newsweek 2 Nov. 54/3 A bad exam experience would be ‘I'm wasted’ at Howard,..‘It was the pits’ at Vassar. 1965Amer. Speech XL. 194 Pits, n. This is a slang abbreviation of the term armpits, again with an extension of meaning to entail the idea of body odor (‘He's got the pits’) or, more broadly, something unpleasant (‘It [the party] was really the pits’). 1976New Yorker 1 Mar. 87/3 If there are gradations in the pits, ‘I Will, I Will..For Now’ is even worse than ‘Gable and Lombard’. It combines the most simperingly forced elements of fifties mistaken-identity farces with a mushy, soft-core version of the sex-manual pornos. 1979New Society 20 Dec. p. xi/3 If Dors is the very personification of the buxom backside of the other Britain..then Joan Collins is the pits. Just the pits. 1981Observer 22 Nov. 11 I've never been fined for saying something obscene. It's always been for saying ‘You're the pits,’ or something.—John McEnroe. 1985J. Fuller Mass viii. 239 Hey, give me a little comfort here. This weather is the pits.
15. attrib. and Comb., as pit-brink, pit-dweller, pit-dwelling, pit-grave; pit-like adj.; esp. in sense 6 (belonging to, employed in, or connected with a coal-mine), as (in sense 6) pit-boot, pit-bottle, pit-boy, pit-cage (cage n. 5 a), pit-cistern, pit-clothes, pit-coat, pit committee, pit-dirt, pit-engine, pit-gate, pit-girl, pit-horse, pit-inspector, pit-lad, pit-lass, pit-manager, pit-mouth, pit-people, pit-pony, pit-prop, pit-road, pit-rope, pit-shaft, pit-singlet, pit-sinker, pit-sinking, pit-timber, pit-top, pit-trousers, pit-village, pit-winder, pit-woman, pit-working; (sense 10), as pit-band, pit-bandsman, pit-door, pit-doorkeeper, pit-orchestra, pit-stall, pit-ticket, pit-tier. Also pit aperture Bot., an opening on the inner surface of a secondary cell wall, forming the entrance to a pit cavity; pit-bank, ‘the raised ground or platforms upon which the coals are sorted and screened at surface’ (Gresley Coal Mining Terms); also attrib.; pit-bar, a timber used to support the sides of the shaft of a mine; pit-bird, local name of the reed-warbler; pit-black a., as black as a pit, intensely black or dark; pit-bottom, the bottom of a pit; spec. the bottom of the shaft in a coal-mine, or the adjacent part of the mine; hence pit-bottomer, a collier employed at the pit-bottom; pit-brae, pit-brow, the ‘brow’ or edge of a pit; spec. = pit-bank; hence pit-brow girl or lass, a girl employed in sorting and screening coal at the pit-brow; pit bull (terrier), a small, stocky, short-coated dog belonging to the American breed so called, usually fawn or brindled in colour, with white markings; also used as a name for the Staffordshire bull terrier, which belongs to a closely related breed; pit canal Bot., a channel in the secondary cell wall of a bordered pit, leading to the pit cavity; pit-cave Archæol. (see quot. 1921); pit-cavity Bot., the space within a simple pit, extending from the primary cell wall to the aperture bordering the cell lumen; pit chamber Bot., the hemispherical space between the primary and secondary cell walls of a bordered pit; pit-comb Archæol., used attrib. to designate pottery decorated with rows of indentations and comb-patterns; pit-crater, a volcanic crater of the form of a pit; pit dog = pit bull terrier; pit-eye = pit-bottom; pit-eyed a., having sunken eyes; pit field Bot., a depression or group of depressions in a primary cell wall; pit-fish, ‘a small fish of the Indian seas, [which] has the power of protruding or retracting its eyes at pleasure’ (Webster 1828); pit-frame, a framework at the top of a pit or shaft, supporting the pulley; pit-game = game-fowl b; pit-guide, a bar in a mine-shaft serving as a guide for the cage; pit-head, the top of a pit or shaft, or the ground immediately around it; also attrib.; hence pit-headman, a workman employed at the pit-head; pit-headed a., having a pit or small depression on the head, as certain serpents (cf. pit-viper) and tapeworms; pit-heap, a heap of excavated material near the mouth of a pit or shaft; hence, the whole of the surface works (= heap-stead, heap n. 6); pit-kiln, an oven for making coke from coal; pit-lamp Canad., a miner's lamp; also transf., a lamp used in hunting or fishing, a jack-lamp (see Jack n.1 34); also as v. trans., to hunt (deer, etc.) using a pit-lamp (also absol.); so pit-lamping vbl. n.; pit-lighting vbl. n. Canad. = pit-lamping above; pit-maker, one who makes or digs a pit; † a gravedigger (obs.); so pit-making; pit-martin, the sand-martin (Swainson Prov. Names Birds); † pit-mask, a mask worn by a woman when present in the pit of a theatre; the wearer of such a mask; pit-mortar, pit-prop: see quots.; pit membrane Bot., the part of a cell wall covering a pit; pit organ, a small depression acting as a receptor sensitive to changes in temperature, found on each side of the head of snakes belonging to the subfamily Crotalinæ; pit-pair Bot., two pits in adjacent cell walls, sharing the same pit membrane; pit-planting, a method of planting trees in which a hole is dug, and the roots settled over a mound of earth in the bottom of the hole before it is refilled; also, planting trees in small depressions which help to conserve moisture; pit-rotted a., rotted by steeping in a pit or pool of water; pit-sand, sand dug out of a sand-pit, as distinguished from river-sand and sea-sand; pit-saw, a large saw for cutting timber, working in a sawpit, with handles at the top and bottom; also attrib. and as v. trans., to cut (timber) with a pit-saw (also absol.); pit-sawyer, the man who stands in a sawpit and works the lower handle of a pit-saw (opp. to top-sawyer); pit-sawing vbl. n.; pit-sawn ppl. a.; pit silo, a silo in the form of a pit (rather than a tower); so pit silage, silage made in a pit; pit-specked a., speckled with pits or small depressions, as fruit; † pit-stone, stone from a quarry; pit stop, in motor-racing, a stop at a pit (sense 1 h) for refuelling, maintenance, etc., usu. during a race; also transf. and fig.; pit tip, the mass of waste material deposited near the mouth of a mine or pit; pit trap = sense 1 f; pit-viper, a venomous serpent of the family Crotalidæ, characterized by a pit or depression in front of each eye; † pit-water: see quot.; pit-well, a well made by excavation; pit-wood, timber used for frames, props, etc., in a coal-pit; pit-work, the system of pumps and machinery connected with them in a pit or shaft; pit yacker, yakker dial., a coal miner. See also pit-coal, etc.
1934Jrnl. Arnold Arboretum XV. 334 The narrow inner and outer layers of the secondary wall come together in the rim formed about the *pit-aperture. 1953K. Esau Plant Anat. iii. 44 The circular pit apertures in a bordered pit-pair appear exactly opposite each other. 1967S. Broido-Altman tr. Fahn's Plant Anat. ii. 36 The opening of the pit on the inner side of the cell wall..is called the pit aperture.
1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §576/23 *Pit band.., a theatre orchestra. 1946R. Blesh Shining Trumpets (1949) xii. 280 The other side..is completely in the manner of the average musical comedy pit band of the 1920's. 1977Rolling Stone 19 May 74/3 At 14 I got a job in a pit band in a cinema.
1959‘F. Newton’ Jazz Scene xi. 189 The despised *pit-bandsmen and light musicians.
1870A. J. Munby Diary 25 June in D. Hudson Munby (1972) 288 ‘I've worked on *pit bonk most o' my days’, said an Oakengates lassie. 1892Daily News 26 Feb. 5/7 Employed on the surface, or at the ‘pit bank’, as it is called. 1930Auden Poems 67 Head-gears gaunt on grass-grown pit-banks. 1968Listener 15 Aug. 205/3 Each plane came in over the long pit-bank mountain.
1708J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 15 *Pit-Bars of Wood and Deals must be used till we get to the Stone.
1863Kingsley Water-Bab. i, The *pit⁓bird warbling in the sedges, as he had warbled all night long.
1871Palgrave Lyr. Poems 48 The curse, *pit-black from below.
1894H. Pease Mark o' Deil 26 H tried to shift it, an' threw his *pit boots at it. 1913D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers i. 25 She..set his pit-boots beside them.
Ibid., She..rinsed his *pit-bottle. a1930― Phoenix II (1968) 263, I, who remember the homeward trooping of the colliers when I was a boy,..the red mouths and the quick whites of the eyes, the swinging pit bottles, and the strange voices of men from the underworld.
c1400Destr. Troy 12663 When þe prinse was past to þe *pit bothum, Þe buernes on þe bonk bet hym with stonys. 1867W. W. Smyth Coal & Coal-mining 121 The coal may be brought down hill to the pit-bottom.
1887P. M'Neill Blawearie 46 Will Hood had been appointed *pit-bottomer here.
1863Edin. Rev. Apr. 424 It is to be hoped these schools will be continued for the purpose of improving the very imperfect scholarship of future *pit-boys. 1897Daily News 8 Jan. 5/2 The President suggested that the pit boys should be placed on the same footing as their more fortunate mates.
1613Jackson Creed ii. xxiv. §5 At the very *Pitbrincke of destruction.
c1440Alphabet of Tales 295 His sawle was broght vnto þe prince of Hell syttand opon þe *pytt bra. 1887Spectator 21 May 675/1 If female labour on the pit-brow is stopped.
1945Sun (Baltimore) 18 May 7/5 Mrs. Dorella Zinke..died within 90 minutes after a mass attack by nine *pit bull terriers. 1968K. Weatherly Roo Shooter 128 It was the rat⁓catching trick of the old pit bull terriers: one savage jerk of the dog's head and the big tom flew high in the air. 1974R. Thomas Porkchoppers xxix. 245 He held a leash that was attached to an aged English pit bull that waddled..and wheezed. 1976Honolulu Star-Bull. 21 Dec. f–8/8 (Advt.), Pit Bull Pups, 8 wks.
1904Westm. Gaz. 29 Mar. 7/3 A serious *pit-cage accident, resulting in the loss of three lives..at the Swanwick Collieries.
1953K. Esau Plant Anat. iii. 43 The border divides the cavity into the pit chamber..and the *pit canal, the passage from the cell lumen into the pit chamber. 1967S. Broido-Altman tr. Fahn's Plant Anat. ii. 40 The pit canal between the inner and outer apertures becomes longer.
1921Discovery Feb. 33/1 Still another kind [of grave]..is known as the ‘*pit-cave’. This was made by first sinking a pit and then cutting out the tomb in the form of a side-recess from the bottom of the pit. 1925V. G. Childe Dawn European Civilization vi. 92 Beside the pit-caves and chamber-tombs excavated in the clay or rock, megalithic graves were erected just in the heel of Italy. 1939J. D. S. Pendlebury Archaeol. Crete iv. 242 At Zapher Papoura both the shaft grave and the pit cave continue in use.
1914M. Drummond tr. Haberlandt's Physiol. Plant Anat. i. 44 The adjoining *pit-cavities are separated only by the thin primary closing-membrane. 1953K. Esau Plant Anat. iii. 41 In the bordered pit the secondary wall arches over the pit cavity. 1970Panshin & de Zeeuw Textbk. Wood Technol. (ed. 3) I. iii. 93 The pit cavity is the entire space within the wall recess, between the pit membrane and the lumen.
1953*Pit chamber [see pit canal above]. 1967S. Broido-Altman tr. Fahn's Plant Anat. ii. 40 As the walls continue to thicken the pit chamber becomes smaller.
1839Ure Dict. Arts 971 The upper *pit-cistern.
1873A. J. Munby Diary 11 Sept. in D. Hudson Munby (1972) 343 Ellen herself came out of the kitchen; and she was in her *pit clothes, as she had promised. 1913D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers i. 25 She..put his pit-clothes on the hearth to warm. 1937‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier iii. 37 At the baths he has two lockers where he can keep his pit clothes separate from his day clothes. 1974Times 1 Feb. 19/4 When a man arrives at the colliery to work his shift he first changes into his pit clothes.
1913D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers iii. 49 He had taken off his *pit-coat.
1954*Pit-comb ware [see cord n.1 12]. 1957V. G. Childe Dawn European Civilization (ed. 6) xi. 204 From Sweden to Siberia indeed all pots were manufactured by the same technique of ring-building, all taper downward to a rounded base and all may be decorated with rows of pits, frequently combined with zones of comb impressions. The whole ceramic family is therefore termed ‘pit-comb ware’. 1967Antiquaries' Jrnl. XLVII. 203 For Fox in 1924, the most obvious comparison was the North European Neolithic pottery, Baltic and more Eastern, called ‘pit-comb ware’ or Pitted ware, on which ornament includes quite similar pits, in one or several rows.
1920Act 10 & 11 Geo. V c. 50 §7 It shall not be necessary to constitute a *pit committee for any mine which is a small mine within the meaning of the Coal Mines Act, 1911. 1928Britain's Industr. Future (Liberal Industr. Inquiry) iv. 266 Open consultation in the [coal] industry should be secured by the establishment of Pit Committees, District Boards, and a National Mining Council.
1886Amer. Jrnl. Sc. Ser. iii. XXXII. 251 The old cone had, like Mt. Loa or the Maui volcano, a great *pit-crater at top.
1913D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers iv. 70 Here sat the colliers in their *pit-dirt. 1914― Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd iii. 79 He's in his pit-dirt.
1945C. L. B. Hubbard Observer's Bk. Dogs 202 Pit Bull Terrier. *Pit Dog. About the end of the eighteenth century..dog-fighting became the new sport... A breed of Bull Terrier was created which became the fore-runner of the present-day Staffordshire Bull Terrier. 1951J. F. Gordon Staffordshire Bull Terrier ii. 23 The Pit Dog, Pit Bull Terrier or Stafford..achieved some measure of emancipation from his gladiatorial background.
1667Pepys Diary 22 May (1974) VIII. 232 But here Knipp spied me out of the tiring-room, and came to the *pit door: and I out to her and kissed her. a1828J. Bernard Retrospections of Stage (1830) I. ii. 45 It was his general practice to take the money at the pit-door. 1894G. B. Shaw Let. 30 Apr. (1965) I. 433 A man who thinks a dramatic performance worth waiting at the pit door all day for is a lunatic.
1831J. Boaden in Private Corr. David Garrick I. p. xxxvi, For the benefit of his father, the *pit-door keeper, and others. 1855W. B. Wood Pers. Recoll. Stage i. 40 My keeper, Mr H., was at this time pit door-keeper at the Chestnut Street Theatre.
1893A. H. S. Landor Hairy Ainu ix. 78 An extinct race of *pit-dwellers.
1898Jrnl. Archæol. Inst. LV. 157 He abandons..the *pit-dwelling theory.
1879Lumberman's Gaz. 15 Oct., The judge took the *pit end of the saw.
1881Raymond Mining Gloss., *Pit-eye,..the bottom of the shaft of a coal-mine. Ibid., Pit-eye pillar, a barrier of coal left around a shaft to protect it from caving.
1696Lond. Gaz. No. 3229/4 A Sorrel Mare,..9 years old, lop-ears, *pit-eyed.
1934Jrnl. Arnold Arboretum XV. 332 Cambial walls are characterized by having more or less numerous plasmodesmata which may be..aggregated in thinner areas of the walls, i.e. in so-called primary *pit-fields. 1953K. Esau Plant Anat. iii. 39 Only the secondary walls have pits, whereas the primary walls have primary pit fields. 1976Bell & Coombe tr. Strasburger's Textbk. Bot. (rev. ed.) 63 Where the pit fields are oval or elongated, the bordered pits take on a similar shape.
a1672Willughby Icthyogr. (1686) App. Tab. 8 *Pit Fish.
c1830Pract. Treat. Roads 13 in Libr. Usef. Knowl., Husb. III, Gravel, which by some persons is called *pit-flint.
1881Raymond Mining Gloss., *Pit-frame, the framework carrying the pit-pulley.
1888Daily News 4 Oct. 3/6 They are preventing the men holding ‘*pit-gate’ meetings on the colliery premises.
1863Edin. Rev. Apr. 436 The *pit-girls are not less fond of holidays than their fathers. Ibid. 437 Much may be done to improve the condition of the poor pit-girl. 1866A. J. Munby Diary 15 May in D. Hudson Munby (1972) 225 Some large coal manager who was strongly in favour of female labour told him the pitgirls were ‘mules, not women’. 1902C. G. Harper Holyhead Road ii. 35 Pit-girls too or rather pit-bank lasses.
1897J. G. Frazer Pausanias Pref., The *pit-graves with their treasures on the acropolis of Mycenae.
1839Ure Dict. Arts 983 With small coals..the *pit head is raised 8 or 9 feet above the common level of the ground. Ibid. 991 The ponderous pulley-wheels are blown from the pit-head frame. 1915Political Q. May 117 A maximum pit-head price might leave much of the home market in the same condition. 1928Daily Chron. 9 Aug. 5/4 From September 1 pit head prices will be raised by 1s. a ton. 1937‘G. Orwell’ Road to Wigan Pier iii. 37 At some of the larger and better appointed collieries there are pithead baths. 1967A. L. Lloyd Folk Song in England v. 335 The miners..before the days of pithead baths..appeared in daylight with black faces. 1974Times 4 Jan. 12/8 If a pithead ballot were held..Yorkshire miners would vote..in favour of stoppage. 1976Evening Post (Nottingham) 15 Dec. 1/2 In the pithead ballot, 78 per cent of miners who voted turned down the Coal Board's offer.
1898Westm. Gaz. 12 Mar. 2/3 Gibson signalled to the *pit headman and stuck to his post until the water was up to his armpits..sending twenty-three of his comrades up to the pithead.
1883Gresley Gloss. Coal Mining, *Pit Heap, see Heapstead... The entire surface works about a colliery shaft. 1894Northumbld. Gloss., Pit-heap.
1913D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers vii. 172 Jimmy, who had been a *pit-horse.
1839Ure Dict. Arts 995 A schachtofen, or *pit-kiln, for coking coals in Germany.
1862Cornh. Mag. Mar. 351 Files of pitmen and groups of *pit-lads are now dotting all the roads. 1912W. Owen Let. 24 July (1967) 151 This pit-lad is wrestling with a Class⁓book of Physics.
1901Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 1 Oct. 6/1 One Indian shot as many as 47 [deer] in one night at Ahatassett, using a *pit lamp. 1906Ibid. 30 Jan. 6/2 The only light he [sc. a coal miner] has is a smoky pit-lamp—a cotton wick soaked in fish oil. 1921Ibid. 30 Oct. 13/4 The rescue parties had to find their way about with candles and pit lamps, great difficulty resulting. 1967Vancouver Province 21 Feb. 19/6 Stanton said his association wants to commend the fisheries department for banning ‘pit lamps’ but believes the order should be made permanent. 1967Wildlife Rev. (Victoria, B.C.) Mar. 27/2 Frank Greenfield..once jailed a man for pitlamping deer.
1924R. S. Sherman Mother Nature Stories 61 *Pit-lamping and hunting with dogs, in addition to natural enemies..have been the cause of its rapid disappearance. 1957A. R. Barratt Coronets & Buckskin 45 That there Blotton had me arrested for pitlamping. 1969Daily Colonist (Victoria, B.C.) 7 Dec. 20/2 Pitlamping on Gabriola Island cost two men $500 each when they pleaded guilty..in court.
1969Islander (Victoria, B.C.) 14 Sept. 10/3 Before dawn one morning, two shots were heard from the direction of his cabin, but no one paid any attention as *pitlighting was common practice.
1567W. Thomas Ital. Gram., Beccamorto, the *pitmaker, or any one that gaineth by the buriall of the deade.
1527–8Rec. St. Mary at Hill 345 Receivide..for her place of buriall, for her *pitt making & other duties viij s. iiij d.
1913D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers i. 16 He could only abuse the *pit-managers. 1976Daily Tel. 20 July 2/3 Harry Widowson, 57, pit manager of Mount Vernon Road, Barnsley.
1891G. Neilson Per Lineam Valli 32 Hundreds of quarry-holes, mere surface *pitmarks on the hill sides.
1895Westm. Gaz. 19 Nov. 2/1 A *pit-marked stretch of scrub.
1701Farquhar Sir H. Wildair v. vi, Perhaps your pleasure never reached above a *pit-mask in your life.
1913Forestry Q. XI. 15 The delicate *pit membranes were ruptured by the shrinkage of the cell walls in drying. 1953K. Esau Plant Anat. iii. 41 The pit membrane is common to both pits of a pair. 1976Bell & Coombe tr. Strasburger's Textbk. Bot. (rev. ed.) 63 Bordered pits, especially amongst the Coniferae, are often furnished with a thickening in the middle of the pit membrane.
1892Jrnl. Archæol. Inst. No. 194. 155 Sticky gravel, termed in the midland counties ‘*pit mortar’.
1839Ure Dict. Arts 985 The draught of the furnace at the *pit mouth.
1927Melody Maker Aug. 767/3 Whether this is because the dancers or singers think a modern dance band is a more enhancing support than a piano or the *pit orchestra—which, of course, it is—or whether it is the band which decides.., I know not. 1934S. R. Nelson All about Jazz i. 27 The atmosphere of the cinema pit-orchestra or military band.
1937*Pit organ [see neuromast]. 1976Nature 3 June 441/1 He did more classic work on the pit-organ of rattlesnakes, where he demonstrated the exquisite thermal sensitivity of this receptor.
1933Tropical Woods XXXVI. 5 *Pit-pair.—Two complementary pits of adjacent cells. 1953K. Esau Plant Anat. iii. 41 Two pits are combined into a paired structure, the pit-pair. 1970Panshin & de Zeeuw Texbk. Wood Technol. (ed. 3) I. iii. 93 Pit pairs may be made up from similar pits to form bordered pit pairs or simple pit pairs.
1855J. R. Leifchild Cornwall Mines 272 Amongst the northern *pit⁓people.
1898C. E. Curtis Pract. Forestry (ed. 2) viii. 47 When planting deeper soils..*pit-planting must be adopted. 1931Forestry V. 18 No method is fool-proof, but pit-planting appears to be the safest. 1970H. L. Edlin Collins Guide Tree Planting & Cultivation i. 110 Failures in pit planting nearly always arise from insufficient firming-up.
1905H. S. Holland Pers. Stud., Westcott 136 *Pit ponies, against whose hard usage in the pit he continually pleaded. 1917R. Hodgson Poems 27 Wretched, blind pit ponies. 1938G. Greene Brighton Rock i. iii. 55 White hair, grey face, short-sighted pit pony eyes. 1978A. Price '44 Vintage xix. 219 Audley was like a racehorse down a coal mine, desperately pretending to be a pit pony.
1883Daily News 26 Sept. 6/4 A Swedish vessel laden with *pitprops. 1891Times 31 Aug. 4/2 Pit-props, which are used as supports in the different workings in collieries.
1895Daily News 30 Apr. 7/6 The search party is now engaged in clearing the *pit roads.
1875R. F. Martin tr. Havrez' Winding Mach. 23 Aloes form the best fibre for the manufacture of *pit-ropes.
1807Vancouver Agric. Devon (1813) 207 This flax is always *pit-rotted for ten days or a fortnight.
1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 242 You may put three parts of Sand that is digged (or *pit Sand) and one part of Lime to make Morter.
1679in Rec. Court of New Castle on Delaware (1904) 361 An Iron sledge and a hand saw Iron—one *Pit Saw. 1703Moxon Mech. Exerc. 99 The Pit-Saw is..used by those Work-men that make sawing Timber and Boards their whole Business. 1848[see cross-cut n. 5]. 1879Lumberman's Gaz. 15 Oct. 5/1 An improvement over the gate saw, almost as great as was the gate over the pit saw. Ibid., Two men..maintained a pit saw mill. 1930L. G. D. Acland Early Canterbury Runs (ser. 1) ix. 219, I should think this will be the last pit-saw to be used in Canterbury. 1960B. Crump Good Keen Man 66 A shack that he and his brother had built from timber they'd pit-sawn themselves 30 years before. 1965F. Russell Secret Islands v. 76 ‘This was where we pitsawed,’ he said doubtfully. 1974P. W. Blandford Country Craft Tools vi. 91 Pit saws are still made in Britain for use in some African countries.
1908E. J. Banfield Confessions of Beachcomber i. ii. 57, I began to be thankful that *pit-sawing was not forced upon me as a profession in the days of inexperienced youth. 1965F. Russell Secret Islands v. 76 Pitsawing is the most brutal physical work a man could do.
1946Nature 17 Aug. 245/1 Apart from the *pit-sawn timber used locally, the pit-sawn timber supplies handled by the Department through its numerous subcontractors totalled 1,060,000 cu.ft. 1965M. Shadbolt Among Cinders xii. 98 He built the house with pit-sawn kauri. 1978O. White Silent Reach xx. 228 The Silent Reach homestead was..primitive. Its exterior walls were of wedge-split or pit-sawn plants.
1941Beaver June 38 *Pitsawyer, in earlier years, an important and indispensable craftsman. To him was due the production of every inch of sawn lumber for the building of the posts and water craft. 1946Nature 17 Aug. 245/1 An exacting specification impossible for pit-sawyers to fulfil and other diffculties were experienced. 1968J. Arnold Shell Bk. Country Crafts 86 Pit sawyers, it seems, were a race much on their own, uncommunicative and perhaps brutish.
1708J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 36 [Corves] halled all along the Barrow-way to the *Pit Shaft. 1886Hall Caine Son of Hagar ii. vi, The head-gear of the pit-shaft.
1887H. E. P. Clinton Treat. Ensilage 56 The quality of the material is certainly superior in many cases to *pit silage. 1951Watson & Smith Silage vi. 95 (heading) Making of pit silage.
1886R. S. Burn Systematic Small Farming xx. 252 While the retaining or enclosing walls of the above-ground silo should not be less than nine inches, the lining walls of the *pit silo may be very much thinner. 1947New Biol. III. 45 A pit silo is merely a trench dug in the ground to convenient dimensions and, if properly drained, the wastage in these pits is less than that commonly experienced in many tower silos. 1966Webster & Wilson Agric. in Tropics xiii. 292 Ensilage of these grasses in either pit or tower silos presents no real difficulties, and is commonly the best way to preserve fodder for use in the dry season, but it involves some losses.
1913D. H. Lawrence Sons & Lovers ii. 28 He..put on his *pit-singlet. 1920― Phoenix (1936) 9 Once more the rabbit was wrapped in the old pit-singlet.
1851in Illustr. Lond. News 5 Aug. (1854) 119/3 (Occupations of People) *Pit-sinker.
1896Daily News 4 May 3/6 There are ten new ventures in the way of *pit-sinking in Monmouthshire.
1858Times 22 Dec. 7/6 The part nearest the orchestra is railed off for three rows of orchestra stalls,..and gives the same dimensions for perfect comfort to the occupant as is afforded by the *pit-stalls at Covent-garden. Behind these are four rows of pit-stalls, the charge for each of which is only 2s.; while admission to the body of the pit will be reduced to 1s. 6d. 1861Dickens Uncomm. Trav. iv. 43 A pit at sixpence, boxes and pit-stalls at a shilling, and a few private boxes at half-a-crown. 1961Bowman & Ball Theatre Lang. 260 Pit stall, in British terminology, a stall in the front rows of the pit.
1659A. Hay Diary (S.H.S.) 76 St Jons kirk was content with the *pitstones.
1932S. C. H. Davis Motor Racing v. 72 *Pit stop. 1942Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Slang §728/1 Pit stop, a stop for oil and gas &c. during a race. 1970Globe & Mail (Toronto) 28 Sept. 22/4 Revson, forced to a pit stop on the 10th lap of the 210-mile race, easily beat out Ferrari's Jim Adams for third place. 1972Times 15 June 4/4 The inner harbour is a huge nautical pit-stop. 1973‘E. Fenwick’ Last of Lysandra xx. 136 His wife..was relieved and pleased to see him, until she understood this was only a pit-stop. 1977Time 4 July 36/1 A pit stop is called for. Time to eat and run.
1762in G. O. Seilhamer Hist. Amer. Theatre (1888) I. xiv. 139 *Pit tickets sold at the door, 146 at 5s. 1786J. Woodforde Diary 26 June (1926) II. 253 For 3 Pit Tickets at the Circus 1 pd 0. 9. 0. 1829H. Foote Compan. to Theatres 94 Boxes may be engaged for the night, or season; and pit tickets purchased for 8s 6d. 1864D. G. Rossetti Let. 5 July (1965) II. 513 He will reserve for me his two pit tickets for Mirella tonight.
1883W. S. Gresley Gloss. Terms Coal Mining 189 *Pit-tip, a bank or heap upon which rubbish out of the mine is tipped. 1907Westm. Gaz. 13 Apr. 10/1 In the Black Country may be seen birches growing luxuriantly on a pit-tip. 1920A. H. Fay Gloss. Mining & Mineral Industry 516/2 Pit tip (Eng.), a bank or heap upon which mine waste is tipped or dumped.
1867W. W. Smyth Coal & Coal-mining 167 The iron-plates with which the staging about the *pit-top is floored.
1895Kipling 2nd Jungle Bk. 20 It was a pointed stick, such as they set in the mouth of a *pit-trap.
c1909D. H. Lawrence Collier's Friday Night (1934) iii. 76 His pit-watch that the Mother hung there when she put his *pit-trousers in the cupboard. 1913― Sons & Lovers ii. 27 He..struggled into his pit-trousers.
1862Cornh. Mag. Mar. 352 *Pit villages..vary much in their character for cleanliness. 1957R. Frankenberg Village on Border 1 Reviewers have..stressed the novelty of..information..about a pit-village in Yorkshire. 1967A. L. Lloyd Folk Song in England v. 333 The keelmen..joined with the colliers' communities in dances on the pit-village green. 1978Peace News 25 Aug. 10/3 When I first came across the Manual I was visiting people in a budding action group on a pit village council estate.
1885Cassell's Encycl. Dict., *Pit-vipers, see Crotalidæ. 1904Brit. Med. Jrnl. 17 Sept. 670 The pit vipers..include the rattlesnakes of America and the trimensurus of India.
1601Holland Pliny II. 407 Surely, wel-water or *pit-water..is simply the wholsomest.
1844Stephens Bk. Farm I. 362 Spring-water should be obtained..by sinking *pit-wells.
1860A. J. Munby Diary 29 Sept. in D. Hudson Munby (1972) 76 A photograph of a *pitwoman in costume.
1841C. H. Hartshorne Salopia Antiqua 532 *Pit wood, wood which is thus called generally runs from three feet six inches to four feet in length, and is very thick. It is used for supporting the roof of a coal pit. 1886F. T. Elworthy West Somerset Word-Bk. 577 Pit-wood.., larch or other wood cut into lengths for supporting ‘the roof’ in coal-mines. 1890Daily News 24 Nov. 2/4 The pitwood trade is also quieter. 1922W. Schlich Man. Forestry (ed. 4) I. 81 It has been shown that during the period 1909–1913, the average annual consumption of timber and pit-wood amounted to about 11 million loads. 1971Timber Trades Jrnl. 21 Aug. 24/1 Output of home-produced pit-wood..fell to its lowest level since 1951.
1855J. R. Leifchild Cornwall Mines 189 Details of the weight and cost of the ‘*pitwork’ (or the parts of the machinery working in the shaft or pit).
1961Spectator 29 Dec. 957 *Pit-Yacker... This is the autobiography of a man brought up in..the seaport mining town of Seaham, County Durham. 1974S. Dobson Geordie Dict. 72 A pit yakker is the Geordie term for a pitman. Possibly from yak or yark meaning to pull out (coals).
Senses 14, 15 in Dict. become 15, 16. Add: [II.] 14. A bed, a bunk. slang (orig. Forces').
1948Partridge Dict. Forces' Slang 143 Pit; usually the old pit. Bed. (Air Force). Where one ‘gets down to it’. 1964J. Hale Grudge Fight v. 76 He scrambles into his pit and pulls the blankets over his head. 1982D. Tinker Message from Falklands (1983) iv. 117 In our pits at night we always get rattled around a bit. 1988Climber June 42/4 The most important item in camping comfort is your pit, after all you spend some 8 hours out of the 24 there.
▪ II. pit, n.2
[app. a. Du. pit, early mod. and late MDu. pitte fem., MLG., LG., WFris., EFris. pit pith, kernel, pip, radically agreeing with OE. piþa masc., pith.]
1. U.S., S. Afr., (? and Eng. dial.)The stone of a stone-fruit. Also, a pip.
The change of sense from ‘marrow’ or ‘pith’ to ‘fruit-stone’ is great, but the intermediate stage is supplied by the sense ‘kernel, pip’: cf. EFris. ‘pitten ût de appels’, pips out of the apples (Dornkaat-Koolm.).
1841G. Bush Doctr. of Resurrection (Bartlett), You put an apple-seed or a peach-pit into the ground, and it springs up into the form of a miniature tree. 1860Bartlett Dict. Amer., Pit,..the stone of a fruit, as of a cherry or peach. Mostly confined to New York State. 1873W. Matthews Getting on in World 26 One man may suck an orange and be choked by a pit, another swallow a penknife and live. 1884Knight Dict. Mech. Supp. 359 Hatch's pitter splits the fruit and removes the pit. [1876Mid-Yorks. Gloss., Pit, a fruitstone. But E.D.D. says ‘Not known to our correspondents’.] 1913C. Pettman Africanderisms 375 Pit... This word is in common use in South Africa as a name for the stones of fruit. 1951J. Steinbeck Burning Bright i. 8 The bitter seed that's like the inside of a peach pit. 1972‘E. Lathen’ The Longer the Thread x. 93 She called him an avocado without a pit. 1977H. E. V. Pickstone's Catal. (S. Afr.) 9 The fruit [sc. a peach] is yellow to reddish yellow, the flesh is deep orange coloured right through to the pit.
2. S. Afr. An edible seed, esp. a pine-nut.
1947[see dennebol].
▪ III. pit, v.
[f. pit n.1]
I.
1. trans. To put or cast into a pit; to inter, bury; esp. to put (roots, vegetables, etc.) into a pit for storage (cf. pit n.1 1 d).
1456Sir G. Haye Law Arms (S.T.S.) 237 To pytt the men of Kirk na [= nor] prison thame..war bot crueltee. 1621T. Granger Ecclesiastes 213 They..liued like beasts, and were pitted like beasts, tumbled into the graue. 1844Stephens Bk. Farm II. 657 In consequence of the wet state in which they had been pitted. 1850Ld. Osborne Gleanings 196 He dug and pitted the potatoes. 1880Jefferies Hodge & M. I. 13 It [the hay] might have been pitted in the earth and preserved still green.
2. To set (cocks, dogs, pugilists, etc.) to fight for sport, prop. in a ‘pit’ or enclosure (see pit n.1 5).
1760R. Heber Horse Matches ix. p. xxii, Before any cocks are pitted. 1770[see main n.3 3]. 1814Sporting Mag. XLIV. 71 Two of the gamest little men ever pitted for twenty-five guineas. 1830Cunningham Brit. Paint. II. 241 He set down the pig, pitted him against the dog. 1864Knight Passages Work. Life I. iii. 177 The collier pitted his cock against that of the sporting farmer.
3. fig. To set in opposition or rivalry; to dispose for conflict; to match, oppose (persons or things). Const. against. Often in passive.
1754Connoisseur No. 15 ⁋5 What in gaming dialect is called Pitting one man against another; that is,..wagering which of the two will live longest. 1777Johnson 22 Sept. in Boswell, It is very uncivil to pit two people against one another. 1788B. Lincoln in Sparks Corr. Amer. Rev. (1853) IV. 222 Federalism and anti-federalism were pitted one against the other. 1826Scott Jrnl. 7 Feb., As a lion-catcher, I could pit her against the world. 1887Creighton Hist. Papacy (1897) III. iii. ix. 25 The two Popes were now pitted one against the other.
II.
4. To make pits in. a. To make hollows or depressions in or upon; to mark with small scars or spots, as those left on the skin after small-pox. Most commonly in passive. Also absol. or intr. To produce small hollows or pits in a surface.
1487Rolls of Parlt. VI. 391/1 The Pavyng [etc.] ben so decayed, broken, and holowid and pitted, by water fallyng out of Gutters. 1661Feltham Lusoria xxiv. (heading), On a Gentlewoman, whose Nose was pitted with the Small Pox. 1677Lady Chaworth in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. v. 42 Lady Anne, is recovered well, but will be pitted, as 'tis feared, with the small pox. 1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Small Pox, Secrets to hinder the Small Pox to Pit. 1830Marryat King's Own xxvi, The balls only pitted in the water, without doing any harm. 1880Mrs. J. H. Riddell Myst. Palace Gard. xiii, Like small-pox,..it pits and sears and marks most souls. 1883S. C. Hall Retrospect II. 253 He was pitted with the small-pox. 1891C. T. C. James Rom. Rigmarole 53 Great drops of rain began to pit the white dusty roads.
b. To furnish with pits or holes; to dig pits in.
[1764–1839: see pitting vbl. n. 3.] 1843J. Smith Forest Trees 63 When the ground is pitted, a person..places a plant in each pit. 1869Phillips Vesuv. viii. 211 This surface is pitted over by artificial diggings.
5. intr. for pass. To sink in or contract so as to form a pit or hollow; spec. in Path. to yield to pressure and retain the impression, as the skin or a soft tissue. Also, to become marked with pits or small depressions.
1737Bracken Farriery Impr. (1756) I. 266 If the Legs of your Horse pit, upon the Impression of the Fingers. 1747Wesley Prim. Physic (1762) 56 note, The part swelled pits if you press it with your finger. 1764Museum Rust. II. cvi. 356 As soon as the sod is all burnt, and he finds the land pits. 1873T. H. Green Introd. Pathol. (ed. 2) 58 The organ..feels doughy, and pits on pressure with the finger. 1887Sci. Amer. 29 Oct. 276/3 How to remove varnish from a panel after it has pitted.
6. Of a driver in a motor race: to stop at a pit (pit n.1 1 h) for fuel or maintenance.
1967Autocar 5 Oct. 39/3 Mike Spence was in the seventh place..when he pitted on lap 36 with sudden engine trouble. 1976–7Sea Spray (N.Z.) Dec./Jan. 58/1 Gray drove a steady, sensible race, pitting half-way through to take on 164 litres of gas in just 45 seconds. 1978‘D. Rutherford’ Collision Course 62 The rain came bucketing down... There was nothing for it but to pit, fit rain tyres and splosh cautiously round.
Add:[3.] b. To match (one's skill, strength, etc.) against an opponent. Freq. in phr. to pit one's wits against.
1898G. B. Shaw Candida i. 106 I'll rescue her from her slavery to them: I'll pit my own ideas against them. 1927V. Woolf To Lighthouse iii. iv. 245 Men..pitting muscle and brain against the waves. 1958Argosy Sept. 12 He was an adventurer pitting his brains against authority, and for once he had lost. 1968B. England Figures in Landscape 85 He had immeasurable courage to stand and fight, to pit his strength against mountains and rivers and sun. 1970T. Lupton Managem. & Social Sci. (ed. 2) iii. 63 Pitting wits against management on piecework rates. 1977K. M. E. Murray Caught in Web of Words xvii. 339 The exhilaration of the fell walker, pitting his strength against the wind on a steep slope. 1981V. Glendinning Edith Sitwell 4 When she was first pitting her wits and talent against the prevailing Georgianism.
▪ IV. pit, v.2 orig. and chiefly N. Amer.|pɪt|
[f. pit n.2]
trans. To remove the pit or stone from (a fruit); = stone v. 7.
1906A. I. Judge Compl. Course in Canning 85 Stem the cherries, remove all leaves, pit by any appropriate method. 1937Fruit Products Jrnl. XVI. 232/2 Washed apricots were pitted, steamed, passed through the fine screen of an..extractor. 1954Sunset Oct. 132/1 (caption) Pit 30 large dates and stuff them with cooked orange rind. 1979Washington Post 21 June e6/1 Cherries don't have to be pitted. 1979Cunningham & Laber Fannie Farmer Cookbk. (1988) 425 Olives. Green, stuffed, ripe or black Mediterranean. Pit and slice.
▪ V. pit, adv.
[Echoic.]
An imitation of the sound of rain-drops, small shot, or the like, striking against a surface: repeated, pit, pit, pit; hence as v. to make this sound.
1859F. Francis N. Dogvane (1888) 86 The gun was heard, followed by the pit-pit-pitting of the shot on the water. 1886J. J. Hissey On Box Seat 56 Pit, pit, pit, dashed the wind⁓driven drops against our window panes.
▪ VI. pit
Sc. and north. dial. form of put v. |