Definitions for: Pit


[n] a workplace consisting of a coal mine plus all the buildings and equipment connected with it
[n] lowered area in front of a stage where an orchestra accompanies the performers
[n] a surface excavation for extracting stone or slate; "a British term for `quarry' is `stone pit'"
[n] a trap in the form of a concealed hole
[n] a sizeable hole (usually in the ground); "they dug a pit to bury the body"
[n] the hard inner (usually woody) layer of the pericarp of some fruits (as peaches or plums or cherries or olives) that contains the seed; "you should remove the stones from prunes before cooking"
[n] a concavity in a surface (especially an anatomical depression)
[v] remove the pits from, as of certain fruit such as peaches
[v] set into opposition or rivalry; "let them match their best athletes against ours"; "pit a chess player against the Russian champion"; "He plays his two children off against each other"
[v] mark with a scar; "The skin disease scarred his face permanently"



Webster (1913) Definition: Pit, n. [OE. pit, put, AS. pytt a pit, hole, L. puteus a
well, pit.]
1. A large cavity or hole in the ground, either natural or
artificial; a cavity in the surface of a body; an
indentation; specifically:
(a) The shaft of a coal mine; a coal pit.
(b) A large hole in the ground from which material is dug
or quarried; as, a stone pit; a gravel pit; or in
which material is made by burning; as, a lime pit; a
charcoal pit.
(c) A vat sunk in the ground; as, a tan pit.

Tumble me into some loathsome pit. --Shak.

2. Any abyss; especially, the grave, or hades.

Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained.
--Milton.

He keepth back his soul from the pit. --Job xxxiii.
18.

3. A covered deep hole for entrapping wild beasts; a pitfall;
hence, a trap; a snare. Also used figuratively.

The anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits.
--Lam. iv. 20.

4. A depression or hollow in the surface of the human body;
as:
(a) The hollow place under the shoulder or arm; the
axilla, or armpit.
(b) See Pit of the stomach (below).
(c) The indentation or mark left by a pustule, as in
smallpox.

5. Formerly, that part of a theater, 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 theater.

6. An inclosed area into which gamecocks, dogs, and other
animals are brought to fight, or where dogs are trained to
kill rats. ``As fiercely as two gamecocks in the pit.''
--Locke.

7. [Cf. D. pit, akin to E. pith.] (Bot.)
(a) The endocarp of a drupe, and its contained seed or
seeds; a stone; as, a peach pit; a cherry pit, etc.
(b) A depression or thin spot in the wall of a duct.

Cold pit (Hort.), an excavation in the earth, lined with
masonry or boards, and covered with glass, but not
artificially heated, -- used in winter for the storing and
protection of half-hardly plants, and sometimes in the
spring as a forcing bed.

Pit coal, coal dug from the earth; mineral coal.

Pit frame, the framework over the shaft of a coal mine.

Pit head, the surface of the ground at the mouth of a pit
or mine.

Pit kiln, an oven for coking coal.

Pit martin (Zo["o]l.), the bank swallow. [Prov. Eng.]

Pit of the stomach (Anat.), the depression on the middle
line of the epigastric region of the abdomen at the lower
end of the sternum; the infrasternal depression.

Pit saw (Mech.), a saw worked by two men, one of whom
stands on the log and the other beneath it. The place of
the latter is often in a pit, whence the name.

Pit viper (Zo["o]l.), any viperine snake having a deep pit
on each side of the snout. The rattlesnake and copperhead
are examples.

Working pit (Min.), a shaft in which the ore is hoisted and
the workmen carried; -- in distinction from a shaft used
for the pumps.


Pit, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pitted; p. pr. & vb. n.
Pitting.]
1. To place or put into a pit or hole.

They lived like beasts, and were pitted like beasts,
tumbled into the grave. --T. Grander.

2. To mark with little hollows, as by various pustules; as, a
face pitted by smallpox.

3. To introduce as an antagonist; to set forward for or in a
contest; as, to pit one dog against another.

Synonyms: cavity, colliery, endocarp, fossa, mark, match, oppose, orchestra pit, pitfall, play off, pock, quarry, scar, stone, stone, stone pit

See Also: area, barbecue pit, blemish, bodily cavity, borrow pit, cavity, cavum, chalk pit, chalkpit, cherry stone, cicatrise, cicatrize, coal mine, coalpit, concave shape, concavity, confront, deface, disfigure, divot, epigastric fossa, excavation, face, fire pit, glenoid cavity, glenoid fossa, gravel pit, hole, hole in the ground, hollow, house, incise, incurvation, incurvature, mandibular fossa, mine, peach pit, pericarp, pit of the stomach, pockmark, quicksand, remove, sandpit, sawpit, seed vessel, take, take away, tar pit, theater, theatre, trap, trou-de-loup, withdraw, work, workplace

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