GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English
last match results
Found 2 definitions
-
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”.
[1913 Webster]
Tumble me into some loathsome pit. Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. Any abyss; especially, the grave, or hades.
[1913 Webster]
Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained. Milton.
[1913 Webster]
He keepth back his soul from the pit. Job xxxiii. 18.
[1913 Webster]
3. A covered deep hole for entrapping wild beasts; a pitfall; hence, a trap; a snare. Also used figuratively.
[1913 Webster]
The anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits. Lam. iv. 20.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
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 (Zool.), 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 stop, See pit stop in the vocabulary. -- Pit viper (Zool.), 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.
[1913 Webster]
-
Pit, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Pitted (?); p. pr. & vb. n. Pitting.]
1. To place or put into a pit or hole.
[1913 Webster]
They lived like beasts, and were pitted like beasts, tumbled into the grave. T. Grander.
[1913 Webster]
2. To mark with little hollows, as by various pustules; as, “a face pitted by smallpox”.
[1913 Webster]
3. To introduce as an antagonist; to set forward for or in a contest; as, “to pit one dog against another”.
[1913 Webster]