pit.
A hole in the ground.
Meaning & usage
A hole in the ground.
The meadow around the town is full of old pits.
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.
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.
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.
An 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.
Only used in the pits.
His circus job was the pits, but at least he was in show business.
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.
The center of the line.
The emergency department of a hospital.
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.
A bed.
An undesirable location, especially an unclean one.
This house is a total pit. We've got to do some cleaning!
A bleak, depressing state of mind.
He was in a pit of despair.
Short for dish pit
Get back to the pit, dish bitch!
On a compact disc or similar recording medium, a tiny sunken area representing part of the encoded data.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *puti Old English pytt Middle English pit English pit 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.
To make pits in; to mark with little hollows.
Exposure to acid rain pitted the metal.
To put (an animal) into a pit for fighting.
To bring (something) into opposition with something else.
Are you ready to pit your wits against one of the world's greatest puzzles?
To return to the pits during a race for refuelling, tyre changes, repairs etc.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *puti Old English pytt Middle English pit English pit 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.
A seed inside a fruit; a stone or pip inside a fruit.
The core of an implosion nuclear weapon, consisting of the fissile material and any neutron reflector or tamper bonded to it.
Where this word comes from
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.
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.
Where this word comes from
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.
A pit bull terrier.
Where this word comes from
Shortening.
To use the PIT maneuver, especially during a car chase.
Where this word comes from
From PIT maneuver.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.