pit

Meanings

Noun

• A hole in the ground.
• An area at a racetrack used for refueling and repairing the vehicles during a race.
• 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.
• A mine.
• 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.
• A trading pit.
• The bottom part of something.
• Armpit.
• A luggage hold.
• A small surface hole or depression, a fossa.
• The indented mark left by a pustule, as in smallpox.
• The grave, underworld or Hell.
• An enclosed area into which gamecocks, dogs, and other animals are brought to fight, or where dogs are trained to kill rats.
• 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.
• Part of a casino which typically holds tables for blackjack, craps, roulette, and other games.
• A pit bull terrier.
• A mosh pit.
• 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.
• The emergency department.
• A seed inside a fruit; a stone or pip inside a fruit.
• A shell in a drupe containing a seed.
• The core of an implosion nuclear weapon, consisting of the fissile material and any neutron reflector or tamper bonded to it.
• A pit bull terrier.

Verb

• To make pits in; to mark with little hollows.
• To put (an animal) into a pit for fighting.
• To bring (something) into opposition with something else.
• To return to the pits during a race for refuelling, tyre changes, repairs etc.
• To remove the stone from a stone fruit or the shell from a drupe.

Related

Similar words

• pibble , pit bull, pittie , shitbull , velvet hippo

Origin

• From Middle English pit, pet, put, from Old English pytt, from Proto-West Germanic *puti, from Latin puteus, although there are phonetic difficulties.
• From Dutch pit, from Middle Dutch pitte, from Proto-Germanic *pittan (compare dialectal German Pfitze), oblique of Proto-Germanic *piþō. Compare pith.
• Shortening.