pit
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /pɪt/
ipa: [pʰɪʔt]
rhymes: -ɪt
Forms: form: pits
Etymology: From Middle English pit, pet, püt, from Old English pytt, from Proto-West Germanic *puti, from Latin puteus (“trench, pit, well”), although there are phonetic difficulties.
Senses: examples: text: The meadow around the town is full of old pits.
text: 27 Whoso diggeth a pit, shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will returne vpon him.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 26:27:
glosses: A hole in the ground.
examples: text: Two drivers have already gone into the pit this early in the race.
topics: hobbies
lifestyle
motor-racing
racing
sports
glosses: An area at a racetrack used for refueling and repairing the vehicles during a race.
topics: entertainment
lifestyle
music
glosses: The section of a marching band containing mallet percussion instruments and other large percussion instruments too large to be marched, such as the tam-tam; the front ensemble. Can also refer to the area on the sidelines where these instruments are placed.
glosses: A mine.
examples: text: The exact sites of Feng and Hao have yet to be verified, but seven pits containing chariots, horses and other Zhou burial objects were discovered at Fengxi, and a concentration of Western Zhou relics and tombs was found in the area of Doumen in Changan County on the east bank of the Feng River.
ref: 1991 [1987], Zou Zongxu, translated by Susan Whitfield, The Land Within the Passes: A History of Xian, Viking, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 68:
topics: archaeology
history
human-sciences
sciences
glosses: A hole or trench in the ground, excavated according to grid coordinates, so that the provenance of any feature observed and any specimen or artifact revealed may be established by precise measurement.
topics: business
finance
trading
glosses: A trading pit.
glosses: An armpit.
topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A luggage hold.
examples: text: [The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].
ref: 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
glosses: A small surface hole or depression, a fossa.
glosses: The indented mark left by a pustule, as in smallpox.
examples: text: Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained.
ref: 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
text: He keepeth back his soul from the pit.
ref: 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job xxxiii:18:
glosses: The grave, underworld or Hell.
examples: text: as fiercely as two game-cocks in the pit
ref: 1693, [John Locke], “§145”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], →OCLC:
glosses: An enclosed area into which gamecocks, dogs, and other animals are brought to fight, or where dogs are trained to kill rats.
glosses: Formerly, that part of a theatre, on the floor of the house, below the level of the stage and behind the orchestra; now, in England, commonly the part behind the stalls; in the United States, the parquet; also, the occupants of such a part of a theatre.
topics: gambling
games
glosses: Part of a casino which typically holds tables for blackjack, craps, roulette, and other games.
examples: text: His circus job was the pits, but at least he was in show business.
glosses: Only used in the pits.
raw_tags: with the
examples: text: Because the museum was closed for renovation, the school decided to bring its fourth-graders to the pit at a Cannibal Corpse gig instead.
glosses: A mosh pit.
examples: text: The ball carrier can be with or without a football. For the “Head-On” tackle have the “Ball Carrier” stand right in front of the pit and face the tackler.
ref: 2007, Bob Swope, Youth Football Drills and Plays Handbook, page 29:
text: “They don't call the middle of the line The Pit for nothing. We really do get like animals, trying to claw one another apart in there. It is very hard in The Pit. No matter how it seems, no matter what the score shows, it's always hard. […]
ref: 2018, Paul Zimmerman, The New Thinking Man's Guide to Professional Football:
topics: American-football
ball-games
football
games
hobbies
lifestyle
sports
glosses: The center of the line.
topics: medicine
sciences
glosses: The emergency department of a hospital.
topics: biology
botany
natural-sciences
glosses: In tracheary elements, a section of the cell wall where the secondary wall is missing, and the primary wall is present. Pits generally occur in pairs and link two cells.
examples: text: Many Bacardi & Cokes later I climbed up into my pit and fell into a deep sleep, and woke up at one thirty in the morning and threw up my tea.
ref: 2009, Julian Beirne, Diary of a Sapper, page 55:
topics: government
military
politics
war
qualifier: Antarctica and UK
glosses: A bed.
examples: text: This house is a total pit. We've got to do some cleaning!
glosses: An undesirable location, especially an unclean one.
examples: text: He was in a pit of despair.
glosses: A bleak, depressing state of mind.
examples: text: Get back to the pit, dish bitch!
text: The plot takes us through the "sleaze pits", the lower West Side leather bars, which Travis notes with undue repulsion.
ref: 1979 April 28, Eric Rofes, “New Yech, New Yech”, in Gay Community News, page 14:
glosses: Short for dish pit
antonyms: land
glosses: On a compact disc or similar recording medium, a tiny sunken area representing part of the encoded data.
Derived terms: armpit
ash pit
ashpit
ball pit
bear pit
bell pit
bitter pit
borrow pit
bottomless pit
buccal pit
burn pit
catchpit
catch pit
cesspit
chalkpit
charpit
Christy pit
circle pit
claypit
clay pit
coalpit
cockfighting pit
cockpit
conversation pit
corn-pit
cyclone pit
dish pit
elbow pit
eye-pit
fire pit
firepit
flea pit
gong-pit
gravel pit
grease pit
gun pit
Hatschek's pit
he who digs a pit for others falls in himself
inspection pit
knee pit
kneepit
lime pit
Lychpit
marlpit
micropit
money pit
mosh pit
nanopit
open-pit mine
orchestra pit
orchestra-pit
passion pit
pit-adder
pit adder
pit babe
pit beef
pit bike
pit bing
pitboard
pit-boss
pit boss
pit bull
pitbull
pit cave
pitcoal
pit coal
pit crew
pit-eye
pitfall
pit frame
pitful
pithead
pit head
pit helmet
pithouse
pit lane
pitless
pitlike
pit lizard
pitman
pitmaster
pit nutter
pit of despair
pit of the stomach
pit pony
pit prop
pitroom
pitsaw
pit stop
pit straight
pitter
pittite
pit toilet
pit village
pit viper
pitwall
pitwheel
pitwork
pitwright
pit-yacker
plutonium pit
pockpit
pseudopit
punji pit
rain pit
rat pit
rifle pit
sandpit
sawpit
shitpit
skim pit
snake pit
snowpit
solution pit
stonepit
sump pit
superpit
tanpit
tarpit
tar pit
tearpit
test pit
the pits
tiger pit
tree pit
trial pit
washpit
wheel pit
wheelpit
whirlpit