tar pit
noun
: an area in which natural bitumens collect and are exposed at the earth's surface and which tends to trap animals and preserve their hard parts (such as bones or teeth)
Example Sentences
Recent Examples on the Web But the middle ground has become a tar pit in Washington. 
David Meyer, Fortune, 23 Mar. 2022 Donald sailed by guard Quinton Spain, who looked as if he were stuck in a tar pit. Los Angeles Times, 13 Feb. 2022 Stagg is usually accompanied by Sapphire and aide-de-camp Java (a super-strong Neanderthal that Stagg found preserved in a tar pit and somehow restored to life, who is also in love with Sapphire). Tribune News Service, cleveland, 2 Jan. 2021 The amoeba shape encroached on the tar pit, which is an active excavation site, and the director of the natural-history museum objected. Dana Goodyear, The New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2020 And like Sabbath, these guys get that channeling a trudge through the tar pits can yield much heavier results than playing fast. Ed Masley, azcentral, 5 Mar. 2020 They were mesmerized by the mammoth in the tar pits. Dorany Pinedastaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 27 Aug. 2019 The adjacent Los Angeles County Museum of Art, just west of the tar pits, is expected to break ground next year on a new building. Carolina A. Miranda, latimes.com, 6 June 2019 Lindsey said there are about a dozen known fossilized tar pits in the world: the western part of the Americas, the Caribbean, Trinidad, Cuba, Venezuela, southern Ecuador and northern Peru, and some less well studied in Asia. Ashley Strickland, CNN, 11 Oct. 2019 See More
David Meyer, Fortune, 23 Mar. 2022 Donald sailed by guard Quinton Spain, who looked as if he were stuck in a tar pit. Los Angeles Times, 13 Feb. 2022 Stagg is usually accompanied by Sapphire and aide-de-camp Java (a super-strong Neanderthal that Stagg found preserved in a tar pit and somehow restored to life, who is also in love with Sapphire). Tribune News Service, cleveland, 2 Jan. 2021 The amoeba shape encroached on the tar pit, which is an active excavation site, and the director of the natural-history museum objected. Dana Goodyear, The New Yorker, 5 Oct. 2020 And like Sabbath, these guys get that channeling a trudge through the tar pits can yield much heavier results than playing fast. Ed Masley, azcentral, 5 Mar. 2020 They were mesmerized by the mammoth in the tar pits. Dorany Pinedastaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 27 Aug. 2019 The adjacent Los Angeles County Museum of Art, just west of the tar pits, is expected to break ground next year on a new building. Carolina A. Miranda, latimes.com, 6 June 2019 Lindsey said there are about a dozen known fossilized tar pits in the world: the western part of the Americas, the Caribbean, Trinidad, Cuba, Venezuela, southern Ecuador and northern Peru, and some less well studied in Asia. Ashley Strickland, CNN, 11 Oct. 2019 See More Word History
First Known Use
1839, in the meaning defined above