| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| pit1 |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  p t |
| NOUN: | 1. A natural or artificial hole or cavity in the ground. 2a. An excavation for the removal of mineral deposits; a mine. b. The shaft of a mine. 3. A concealed hole in the ground used as a trap; a pitfall. 4a. Hell. b. A miserable or depressing place or situation. c. pits Slang The worst. Used with the: “New York politics are the pits” (Washington Star). 5. A small indentation in a surface: pits in a windshield. 6a. A natural hollow or depression in the body or an organ. b. A small indented scar left in the skin by smallpox or other eruptive disease; a pockmark. c. Informal An armpit. Often used in the plural. 7. An enclosed, usually sunken area in which animals, such as dogs or gamecocks, are placed for fighting. 8a. The section directly in front of and below the stage of a theater, in which the musicians sit. b. Chiefly British The ground floor of a theater behind the stalls. 9a. The section of an exchange where trading in a specific commodity is carried on. b. The gambling area of a casino. 10a. A sunken area in a garage floor from which mechanics may work on cars. b. Sports An area beside an auto racecourse where cars may be refueled or serviced during a race. Used with the. Often used in the plural. 11. Football The middle areas of the defensive and offensive lines. 12. Botany A cavity in the wall of a plant cell where there is no secondary wall, as in fibers, tracheids, and vessels. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: pit·ted, pit·ting, pits
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To mark with cavities, depressions, or scars: a surface pitted with craters. 2. To set in direct opposition or competition: a war that pitted brother against brother. 3. To place, bury, or store in a pit. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To become marked with pits. 2. To retain an impression after being indented. Used of the skin. 3. To stop at a refueling area during an auto race. | | ETYMOLOGY: | Middle English, from Old English pytt, ultimately from Latin puteus, well. See pau-2 in Appendix I.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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