English
pit
see also: PIT
Pronunciation
  • IPA: /ˈpɪt/, [ˈpʰɪʔt]
Noun

pit (plural pits)

  1. A hole in the ground.
    The meadow around the town is full of old pits.
  2. (motor racing) An area at a racetrack used for refueling and repairing the vehicles during a race.
    Two drivers have already gone into the pit this early in the race.
  3. (music) A section of the marching band containing mallet percussion instruments and other large percussion instruments too large to march, such as the tam tam. Also, the area on the sidelines where these instruments are placed.
  4. A mine.
  5. (archaeology) 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.
  6. (trading) A trading pit.
  7. The bottom part of something.
    I felt pain in the pit of my stomach.
  8. (colloquial) Armpit.
  9. (aviation) A luggage hold.
  10. (countable) A small surface hole or depression, a fossa.
  11. The indented mark left by a pustule, as in smallpox.
  12. The grave, or underworld.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book 4”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:
      Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained.
    • 1611, Bible, Job xxxiii. 18 (KJV).
      He keepeth back his soul from the pit.
  13. An enclosed area into which gamecocks, dogs, and other animals are brought to fight, or where dogs are trained to kill rats.
    • 1693, [John Locke], “§145”, in Some Thoughts Concerning Education, London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], OCLC 1161614482 ↗:
      as fiercely as two game-cocks in the pit
  14. 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.
  15. (gambling) Part of a casino which typically holds tables for blackjack, craps, roulette, and other games.
  16. (slang) A pit bull terrier.
    I'm taking one of my pits to the vet on Thursday.
  17. (in the plural, with the, slang) Only used in the pits#English|the pits.
    His circus job was the pits, but at least he was in show business.
  18. (slang) A mosh pit.
    Because the museum was closed for renovation, the school decided to bring its fourth-graders to the pit at a Cannibal Corpse gig instead.
  19. (law enforcement, usually used with "maneuver") A maneuver by which a police officer, by use of a police car, nudges the vehicle of a fleeing suspect enough for the suspect's vehicle to lose control and become disabled so the police officer can catch and apprehend the suspect.
  20. The fissile core of a nuclear weapon, commonly made of plutonium surrounded by high-explosive lenses.
Synonyms Translations Translations
  • French: stand (France), puits (Québec)
  • German: Box
  • Italian: box
  • Portuguese: pitstop
  • Russian: бокс
  • Spanish: (anglicism) pit
Translations Verb

pit (pits, present participle pitting; past and past participle pitted)

  1. (transitive) To make pits in; to mark with little hollows.
    Exposure to acid rain pitted the metal.
  2. (transitive) To put (an animal) into a pit for fighting.
  3. (transitive) To bring (something) into opposition with something else.
    Are you ready to pit your wits against one of the world's greatest puzzles?
    • 2012 March 22, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Hunger Games[http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-hunger-games,71293/]
      For the 75 years since a district rebellion was put down, The Games have existed as an assertion of the Capital’s power, a winner-take-all contest that touts heroism and sacrifice—participants are called “tributes”— while pitting the districts against each other.
    • 2017 August 25, Aukkarapon Niyomyat & Panarat Thepgumpanat, "Thai junta seeks Yingluck's arrest as former PM skips court verdict ↗", in reuters.com, Reuters
      That movement, pitted against a Bangkok-centered royalist and pro-military elite, has been at the heart of years of turmoil.
    • 2017 August 25, "Arrest threat as Yingluck Shinawatra misses verdict ↗", in aljazeera.com, Al Jazeera
      Thaksin's ouster triggered years of upheaval and division that has pitted a poor, rural majority in the north that supports the Shinawatras against royalists, the military and their urban backers.
  4. (intransitive, motor racing) To return to the pits during a race for refuelling, tyre changes, repairs etc.
Translations Noun

pit (plural pits)

  1. A seed inside a fruit; a stone or pip inside a fruit.
  2. A shell in a drupe containing a seed.
  3. The core of an implosion weapon, consisting of the fissile material and any neutron reflector or tamper bonded to it.
Translations Translations Verb

pit (pits, present participle pitting; past and past participle pitted)

  1. (transitive) To remove the stone from a stone fruit or the shell from a drupe.
    One must pit a peach to make it ready for a pie.
Translations Noun

pit (plural pits)

  1. (informal) A pit bull terrier.
PIT
Proper noun
  1. Abbreviation of Pittsburgh#English|Pittsburgh.
Noun

pit (plural pits)

  1. personal income tax
  2. (initialism) Precision Immobilization Technique (or Pursuit Intervention Technique or Parallel Immobilization Technique), a method for ending car chases by causing a controlled collision forcing the pursued car to spin.
  3. (computing) Programmable interval timer


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