PIT


Meaning of PIT in English

I. pit 1 /pɪt/ BrE AmE noun [countable]

[ Sense 1-5,7-13: Language: Old English ; Origin: pytt ]

[ Sense 6: Date: 1800-1900 ; Language: Dutch ]

1 . HOLE

a) a hole in the ground, especially one made by digging:

The female digs a pit in which to lay the eggs.

a five-foot deep pit

⇨ ↑ sandpit

b) a large hole in the ground from which stones or minerals are obtained by digging

gravel/sand/chalk pit

2 . MINE especially British English a coal mine:

Dad first went down the pit (=worked in a coal mine) when he was 15 years old.

a national strike against pit closures

3 . MARK a small hollow mark in the surface of something, especially on your skin as the result of a disease:

the deep pits left by smallpox

4 . UNTIDY PLACE [usually singular] informal a house or room that is dirty, untidy, or in bad condition

5 . be the pits informal to be extremely bad:

The company refused to pay – I think it’s the pits.

6 . in/at the pit of your stomach if you have a feeling in the pit of your stomach, you have a sick or tight feeling in your stomach, usually because you are nervous or afraid:

I had a feeling in the pit of my stomach that something terrible was going to happen.

7 . CAR RACING the pits the place beside the track in a car race where cars can come in for petrol, new tyres etc ⇨ ↑ pit stop

8 . IN A THEATRE an ↑ orchestra pit

9 . IN A GARAGE a hole in the floor of a garage that lets you get under a car to repair it:

an inspection pit

10 . a/the pit of something literary a situation which makes you feel very bad:

Just thinking about the future plunged her into a pit of despair.

11 . IN FRUIT especially American English the single large hard seed in some fruits SYN stone British English :

a peach pit

12 . BODY PART informal an ↑ armpit

13 . BUSINESS American English the area of a ↑ stock exchange where people buy and sell shares SYN floor British English

II. pit 2 BrE AmE verb ( past tense and past participle pitted , present participle pitting )

1 . [transitive usually passive] to put small marks or holes in the surface of something

be pitted with something

The whole street was pitted with potholes.

2 . [transitive] especially American English to take out the single hard seed inside some fruits SYN stone :

Peel and pit two avocados.

3 . [intransitive] American English to stop in a car race to get petrol or have your car repaired

⇨ ↑ pitted

pit somebody/something against somebody/something phrasal verb

to test someone’s strength, ability, power etc in a competition or fight against someone or something else:

We’ll be pitting our team against the champions.

pit your wits against somebody (=compete against someone using your intelligence or knowledge)

Pit your wits against family or friends!

pit yourself against something/somebody

The men had to pit themselves against the forces of nature.

pit out phrasal verb American English informal

to ↑ sweat so much that your clothes become wet under your arms

Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.      Longman - Словарь современного английского языка.