pit1
/pɪt
/noun
1A large hole in the ground.I do not see any risk of these pits becoming breeding grounds for mosquitoes....
- First he put a bunch of stones in a big fire, then he put the stones in a pit dug in the ground, put stones over the top, and covered it with moss, sticks and sand.
- Others excavated rifle pits where the ground was soft enough for digging.
Synonyms
hole, ditch, trench, trough, hollow, shaft, mineshaft, excavation, cavity, pothole, rut;
abyss, chasm, gulf, crater
1.1A large deep hole from which stones or minerals are quarried: a gravel pit...
- A wetlands conservation project in old quarries and gravel pits in North Yorkshire has won a national award.
- Stone from this pit was a deep, rich chocolate brown and was certainly the most popular stone with both the contractor and the public.
- As quarrying expanded, five pits were eventually opened.
1.2A coal mine: [as modifier]: the recent protests over planned pit closures...
- By this time next year there will only be seven deep coal mining pits left in this country.
- Slag heaps from dozens of coal pits dot the countryside.
- We also had a mining industry until the pit closures.
Synonyms
coal mine, colliery, quarry, workings, diggings
1.3A low or wretched psychological state: a black pit of depression...
- Let her know that she doesn't have to fight her way out of the black pit of sadness by herself.
- He would have slowly made his way back into his dark pit of depression and left everybody behind.
- What they really seek to know is, how do they find someone who can actually exert some traction to help pull them out of the pit of depression.
1.4 (the pit) literary Hell.God only knows how many lost souls they've saved from the fiery pit of damnation....
- This had been God's great mistake, he reflected, banishing him to the deepest pits of the world below: he had given him his own world to play with.
- If we do it with both eyes on ourselves, the devil will cast us into the deepest of pits.
2An area reserved or enclosed for a specific purpose, in particular:
2.1 (usually the pits) An area at the side of a track where racing cars are serviced and refuelled: [as modifier]: the pit lane...
- People walking through the pits often stop to check out the cars because they don't all look the same.
- My crew did a great job getting me back out there, and I'm happy that we were able to finish the race on the track and not in the pits.
- She rejoined the track but was forced back to the pits as the problem remained.
2.2A sunken area in a workshop floor allowing access to a car’s underside.He told how he had spent many years on the workshop floor, often in the pit, as this was the time before rafts and lifts....
- Some autos are held upright in pits five feet deep, trunk end down.
- One of the staff comes out into the carpark, without putting the car over the pit.
2.3An orchestra pit.I covered the whole of the width of the stage in front of the curtains and also filled the pits....
- The show goes ahead come rain or shine, the fourth wall is constantly broken and those in the pit are almost on-stage.
- However, both covered and uncovered pits can colour an orchestra's sound, and the usually cramped space forces the players into awkward positions.
2.4A part of the floor of a stock exchange in which a particular stock or commodity is traded: pooled commodity funds liquidated positions in the corn and soybean pits the trading pit of the Singapore International Monetary Exchange...
- Although no one expects the euro to collapse, the debate is contributing to an uncertain atmosphere in foreign-exchange trading pits.
- Most traders trade in a pit, sitting almost on top of each other where everyone can be seen and heard and all calls traced and deals marked.
- Even now, many traders make electronic trades on handheld devices when they're in the pits.
2.5 (the pit) British dated The seating at the back of the stalls of a theatre.There were still tip up wooden seats in the pit and benches in the gallery....
- At ten to eight, the house doors opened, and there was a rush for the sixpenny seats in the pit.
- What's it like to sit in the pit in the Chicago Theater?
2.6chiefly historical An enclosure in which animals are made to fight: a bear pit...
- I heal the animals that fight in the pit… so long as there's enough left to heal.
- This rough, loose, prickly coat allowed the Shar-Pei to wriggle out of its opponent's grasp while fighting in the dog pits.
- In such contests, according to law-enforcement officials, two dogs are placed in a pit or similar area enclosed with plywood walls.
3A hollow or indentation in a surface.The outer surface has pits, grooves, and perforations that represent traces of vascular structures....
- Some contain rounded surface pits, and show other irregularities, and grains intermediate between the two groups are present.
- The diminutive monkey in front of me puts a hard palm nut, the size of its fist, into one of the many small pits on the rock surface.
3.1A small indentation left on the skin by a pustule or spot; a pockmark.Dents or pits in the skin can easily become filled with bits of skin and hair, and infected with bacteria....
- Sometimes, popping a pimple will cause a brown or red scar to form that could last months; and scars, in the form of dents and pits, can last forever.
- I have many acne pits of varying sizes on my face.
Synonyms
pockmark, pock, mark, hollow, indentation, depression, dent, dint, concavity, dimple
4British informal A person’s bed.Once home we shuffled off to our respective pits, I surfaced at 10.30 am....
- Assuming you can drag yourself out of your pit by about 10am, you should be in reasonable shape.
- Mark was still in his pit, although he was awake.
5 informal A person’s armpit.When she lifts her arms, she has a big old bushy pit!...
- The cashier had sweaty pits and greasy hair.
- She turned up at a premiere with hairy pits.
verb (pits, pitting, pitted) [with object]
1 (pit someone/thing against) Set someone or something in conflict or competition with: you’ll get the chance to pit your wits against the world champions...
- The competition, which will pit American gymnasts against gymnasts from Russia, The Netherlands, Bulgaria, Canada, Italy, Brazil, and Mexico, is being held in the Arrowhead Pond.
- The chance to pit your wits against the best players in the country, in the most sumptuous and atmospheric of football arenas, just doesn't get any better for a professional footballer.
- He seems keen on conflict, pitting the countryside against the city.
Synonyms
set against, match against, put in opposition to, put in competition with, measure against;
compete with/against, contend with, vie with, grapple with, wrestle with
informal pitch against
1.1 historical Set an animal to fight against (another animal) for sport: there were usually three dogs pitted against one lion...
- The Romans are famous for their wild beast shows in the public arenas, where animals were pitted against one another for entertainment.
- Ancient Romans pitted dogs against each other in gladiatorial contests.
- When animals were pitted against each other, the Romans often tied them together with a chain to make sure that they would fight.
Because formerly set against each other in a ‘pit’ or enclosure
2Make a hollow or indentation in the surface of: rain poured down, pitting the bare earth...
- The tip of the stick is often driven into the cloth with force, weakening the structure of the weave, and pitting the playing surface.
- The dirty, white stone front of the shop, which stocked boxes of beer cans, was pitted with bullet holes, while a car and lorry parked in the protected courtyard outside were badly damaged in the attack.
- Much her chagrin she saw that through the ravages of time it was pitted with holes, some small others rather large.
Synonyms
make holes in, make hollows in, hole, dent, indent, depress, dint, pothole
2.1 [no object] Sink in or contract so as to form a pit or hollow.The skin becomes swollen and puffy, and pits on being pressed....
- My skin pits when pressed.
- It is distinguished from other swellings by pitting under pressure.
3 [no object] Drive a racing car into the pits for fuel or maintenance: he pitted on lap 36 with sudden engine trouble...
- He began to pick up the pace and managed to climb to 6th during the first hour before pitting for fuel and fresh tyres.
- He took the lead briefly before pitting for fuel at the end of the race.
- However, they elected not to pit for fuel during an early caution period, and that cost them time against their rivals.
Phrases
be the pits
dig a pit for
the pit of one's (or the) stomach
Origin
Old English pytt, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch put and German Pfütze, based on Latin puteus 'well, shaft'.
The pit that is a large hole in the ground is based on Latin puteus ‘well shaft’. As a North American term for the stone of a fruit, pit seems to have been taken from Dutch in the 19th century, and is related to Old English pith. Since the 1960s people have used pits as an informal shortened term for armpits (Late Middle English). These often have a tendency to be damp and smelly and so it was but a small linguistic leap to have them symbolize the worst example of something. That is one explanation of to be the pits, ‘to be extremely bad’. A more refined interpretation connects the bottom of a deep, dark hole with the lowest possible rank or class. The verb meaning ‘to test in a conflict or competition’, as in pit your wits, comes from the former practice of setting animals such as cocks or dogs to fight each other. The creatures were ‘pitted’ or put together in a pit or other enclosure (literally a cockpit), a sense used from the mid 18th century.
Rhymes
pit2
/pɪt/chiefly North American
noun
The stone of a fruit.The fruits have a pit at the end away from the stem....
- The bones, shells, and fruit pits found in the privy suggest a household well supplied with food and drink.
- John kicked a fruit pit across the road into a door.
Synonyms
stone, pip, seed
verb (pits, pitting, pitted) [with object]
Remove the pit from (fruit).Leave some cherries whole so people can see later on how hard you worked pitting real cherries....
- If you're pitting cherries, do it inside a Ziploc bag.
- I cut the cherries in half and pitted them.
Origin
Mid 19th century: apparently from Dutch; related to pith.