pit1
n.
- a large hole in the ground.
▸a mine or excavation for coal or minerals.
▸a sunken area in a workshop floor allowing access to a car's underside.
- a hollow or indentation in a surface.
- an area at the side of a track where racing cars are serviced and refuelled.
- short for orchestra pit (see orchestra).
-
(the pit)
Brit. dated the seating at the back of the stalls of a theatre.
- a part of the floor of an exchange in which a particular stock or commodity is traded.
- chiefly historical an enclosure in which animals are made to fight:
a bear pit.
-
(the pit)
literary hell.
▸
(
the pits)
informal a very bad place or situation:
this really is the pits!
- Brit. informal a person's bed.
v.
(pits, pitting, pitted)
-
(pit someone/thing against)
set someone or something in conflict or competition with.
- make a hollow or indentation in the surface of.
▸sink in or contract so as to form a hollow.
- drive a racing car into the pit.
Phrase
- the pit of the stomach
the region of the lower abdomen.
Derivative
Etymology
OE pytt, of W. Gmc origin, based on L. puteus ‘well, shaft’; sense 1 of the verb derives from the former practice of setting animals to fight each other in a pit.
pit2
n.
the stone of a fruit.
v.
(pits, pitting, pitted)
remove the pit from (fruit).
Derivative
Etymology
C19: appar. from Du.; rel. to pith.