pit

• IPA^(key): /ˈpɪt/, [ˈpʰɪʔt]

• (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪt

From Middle English pit, pet, püt, from Old English pytt (“pit, hole in the ground, well, grave, pustule, pockmark”), from Proto-Germanic *putjaz (“pit, well”), from Latin puteus (“trench, pit, well”), from Proto-Indo-European *pewǝ- (“to beat, hew”). Cognate with West Frisian pet (“pit”), Saterland Frisian Put (“pit”), Dutch put (“well, pockmark”), German Pfütze (“puddle, pool”), Danish pyt (“pit”), Icelandic pyttur (“pit”).

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 motor 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.
    • 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

      [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, […].

11. The indented mark left by a pustule, as in smallpox.
12. The grave, or underworld.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Milton

      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.
    • (Can we date this quote?) John Locke

      as fiercely as two gamecocks 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.

    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.

pit (third-person singular simple present pits, present participle pitting, simple past and past participle pitted)

1. (transitive) To make pits in; to mark with little hollows.

   Exposure to acid rain pitted the metal.

2. 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

     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.

From Dutch pit (“kernel, core”), from Middle Dutch pitte, from Proto-Germanic *pittan (compare dialectal German Pfitze (“pimple”)), oblique of Proto-Germanic *piþō. Compare pith.

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.

pit (third-person singular simple present pits, present participle pitting, simple 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.

Shortening.

pit (plural pits)

1. (informal) A pit bull terrier.
   • 2012, Shorty Rossi, Four Feet Tall and Rising (page 186)

     I resolved to find all my pits good homes and to get out of the rescue and breeding business.

• PTI, TIP, TPI, tip, tpi

pít

1. road, path, way

From Old Occitan, from Latin pectus, from Proto-Italic *pektos, from Proto-Indo-European *peg (“breast”). Compare Italian petto, Portuguese peito, Romanian piept, Spanish pecho.

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈpit/
• Rhymes: -it

pit m (plural pits)

1. breast
2. In castells (human towers), force to support the castell, provided by pressing one's chest onto the back of the casteller in front of one

• apitrar

• “pit” in Diccionari de la llengua catalana, segona edició, Institut d’Estudis Catalans.

• IPA^(key): /pɪt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪt

From Middle Dutch pit. This etymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.

pit m or f (plural pitten, diminutive pitje n)

1. A seed inside a fruit.
2. wick (of a candle, lamp or other implement)

   Synonyms: lemmet, lont, wiek

3. burner (on a stove)
4. spirit, vigour

   Hij heeft pit. ― He has something going for him.

• gaspit
• kaarsenpit
• lampenpit
• pittig

Borrowed from English pit.

pit m (plural pits)

1. (racing) pit (refueling station and garage at a race track)

• pitpoes
• pitstop
• pitstraat

• tip

From Old Irish pit (“pit, hollow; female pudenda”), possibly related to putte (“pit, hollow”), Latin puteus.

pit f (genitive singular pite, nominative plural piteanna)

1. (anatomy) vulva
2. shell-less crab

• piteog f, piteachán m, piteán m (“effeminate man, sissy”)

• faighin (“vagina”)

• "pit" in Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, An Gúm, 1977, by Niall Ó Dónaill.
• “pit, (put)” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.
• Entries containing “vulva” in English-Irish Dictionary, An Gúm, 1959, by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.
• Entries containing “pit” in New English-Irish Dictionary by Foras na Gaeilge.

From Dutch fiets (“bicycle”)

pit

1. bicycle

• IPA^(key): /pʲit/

pit

1. supine of piś

• IPA^(key): /pʲit/

pit f

1. genitive plural of pita

• IPA^(key): /pɪt/

pit (third-person singular present pits, present participle pittin, past pit, past participle pit)

1. to put

• putt

From Old Irish pit (“pit, hollow; female pudenda”), possibly related to putte (“pit, hollow”), Latin puteus.

pit f (genitive singular pite, plural pitean)

1. female external genitalia, vulva
2. (vulgar) cunt, pussy

• Faclair Gàidhlig Dwelly Air Loidhne, Dwelly, Edward (1911), Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan/The Illustrated [Scottish] Gaelic-English Dictionary (10th ed.), Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
• “pit, (put)” in Dictionary of the Irish Language, Royal Irish Academy, 1913–76.

pit

1. gall, bile

• IPA^(key): [pʰìːt]

  Rhymes: -ìːt

  Homophone: Pijt

pit

1. squeak, beep