Wiktionary

pit

See also: Appendix:Variations of "pit"

English

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Pronunciation

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A close-up of a pit.

Etymology 1

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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.

Noun

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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 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) 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.
  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.
    • 1991 [1987], Zou Zongxu, translated by Susan Whitfield, The Land Within the Passes: A History of Xian‎[2], Viking, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 68:
      The exact sites of Feng and Hao have yet to be verified, but seven pits containing chariots, horses and other Zhou burial objects were discovered at Fengxi, and a concentration of Western Zhou relics and tombs was found in the area of Doumen in Changan County on the east bank of the Feng River.
  6. (trading) A trading pit.
  7. (colloquial) Armpit.
  8. (aviation) A luggage hold.
  9. (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, […].
  10. The indented mark left by a pustule, as in smallpox.
  11. The grave, underworld or Hell.
  12. An enclosed area into which gamecocks, dogs, and other animals are brought to fight, or where dogs are trained to kill rats.
  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. (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.
  17. (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.
  18. (American football) The center of the line.
    • 2007, Bob Swope, Youth Football Drills and Plays Handbook, page 29:
      The ball carrier can be with or without a football. For the “Head-On” tackle have the “Ball Carrier” stand right in front of the pit and face the tackler.
    • 2018, Paul Zimmerman, The New Thinking Man's Guide to Professional Football:
      “They don't call the middle of the line The Pit for nothing. We really do get like animals, trying to claw one another apart in there. It is very hard in The Pit. No matter how it seems, no matter what the score shows, it's always hard. […]
  19. (medicine, slang) The emergency department of a hospital.
  20. (botany) 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.
  21. (Antarctica and UK, military, slang) A bed.
    • 2009, Julian Beirne, Diary of a Sapper, page 55:
      Many Bacardi & Cokes later I climbed up into my pit and fell into a deep sleep, and woke up at one thirty in the morning and threw up my tea.
  22. (informal) An undesirable location, especially an unclean one.
    This house is a total pit. We've got to get out of here!
    Get back to the pit, dish bitch!
    • 1979 April 28, Eric Rofes, “New Yech, New Yech”, in Gay Community News, page 14:
      The plot takes us through the "sleaze pits", the lower West Side leather bars, which Travis notes with undue repulsion.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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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. (transitive) 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[3]:
      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.
    • 2020 September 13, Andrew Benson, “Tuscan Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton claims 90th win after incredible race”, in BBC Sport‎[4]:
      Bottas had to pit earlier than expected for fresh tyres. Hamilton followed him in next time around and the two drivers were instructed to stay off the kerbs to protect their tyres.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Etymology 2

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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.

Noun

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pit (plural pits)

  1. (Northern US) A seed inside a fruit; a stone or pip inside a fruit.
  2. A shell in a drupe containing a seed.
  3. (military) The core of an implosion nuclear weapon, consisting of the fissile material and any neutron reflector or tamper bonded to it.
    • 1996, “2 Background”, in :w:National Research Council (United States), editor, An Evaluation of the Electrometallurgical Approach for Treatment of Excess Weapons Plutonium, Washington DC, USA: National Academies Press, →DOI, page 15:
      [...] weapons "pits" (the plutonium components of nuclear weapons, named by analogy with the pit of a fruit such as a peach), [...].
    • 1999, Anne C Fitzpatrick, Igniting the Light Elements: The Los Alamos Thermonuclear Weapon Project, 1942-1952‎[5], Los Alamos, NM (United States): Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), →DOI, Thesis LA-13577-T, page 248:
      The Nagasaki-type [bomb] [...] had a wider range of yield potential depending on the kind of fissile core and tamper assembly, or "pit," used in it.
Derived terms
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Translations
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Verb

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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.
Translations
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Etymology 3

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Shortening.

Noun

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pit (plural pits)

  1. (informal) A pit bull terrier.
    Synonyms: (informal) pibble, pit bull, (informal) pittie, (pejorative) shitbull, (slang) velvet hippo
    • 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.
Translations
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Further reading

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See also

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  • pit-a-pat (probably etymologically unrelated)

Anagrams

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Cahuilla

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Noun

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pít

  1. road, path, way

Catalan

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Etymology

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Inherited from Old Catalan pit (also pits), from Latin pectus, from Proto-Italic *pektos, from Proto-Indo-European *peg- (“breast”). Compare Occitan pièch, French pis, Spanish pecho.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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pit m (plural pits)

  1. breast
    Synonym: mamella
  2. (castells) force to support the castell, provided by the castellers in the pinya by pressing their chest onto the back of the casteller in front of them
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References

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Czech

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Pronunciation

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Participle

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pit

  1. masculine singular passive participle of pít

Dutch

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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

Noun

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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.
Derived terms
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Descendants
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  • → English: pit

Etymology 2

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Borrowed from English pit.

Noun

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pit m (plural pits)

  1. (motor racing) pit (refueling station and garage at a race track)
Derived terms
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Anagrams

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Hokkien

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For pronunciation and definitions of pit – see 筆 (“writing brush; pen; pencil; etc.”).
(This term is the pe̍h-ōe-jī form of 筆).

Indonesian

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Pronunciation

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Etymology 1

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Borrowed from Javanese ꦥꦶꦠ꧀ (pit), from Dutch fiets.[1]

Noun

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pit

  1. (dialectal) Synonym of sepeda (“bicycle”)

Etymology 2

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Borrowed from Hokkien 筆／笔 (pit, “inkbrush”).

Noun

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pit

  1. calligraphy brush; inkbrush
    Synonym: mopit

Etymology 3

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Borrowed from English pit.

Noun

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pit

  1. (motor racing) pit (an area at a racetrack used for refueling and repairing the vehicles during a race)

References

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  1. ^ Nicoline van der Sijs (2010) Nederlandse woorden wereldwijd [Dutch words worldwide]‎[1], Den Haag: Sdu Uitgevers, →ISBN, →OCLC

Further reading

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Irish

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Etymology

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

Noun

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pit f (genitive singular pite, nominative plural piteanna)

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

Declension

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Declension of pit (second declension)
bare forms
case singular plural
nominative pit piteanna
vocative a phit a phiteanna
genitive pite piteanna
dative pit piteanna
forms with the definite article
case singular plural
nominative an phit na piteanna
genitive na pite na bpiteanna
dative leis an bpit
don phit 		leis na piteanna

Derived terms

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Mutation

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Mutated forms of pit
radical lenition eclipsis
pit phit bpit

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Modern Irish.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

Further reading

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Javanese

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Romanization

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pit

  1. Romanization of ꦥꦶꦠ꧀

Lower Sorbian

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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pit

  1. supine of piś

Polish

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Pronunciation

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Noun

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pit f

  1. genitive plural of pita

Scots

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Pronunciation

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Verb

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

  1. to put
    Synonym: putt

Scottish Gaelic

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Etymology

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

Noun

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pit f (genitive singular pite, plural pitean)

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

Mutation

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Mutation of pit
radical lenition
pit phit

Note: Certain mutated forms of some words can never occur in standard Scottish Gaelic.
All possible mutated forms are displayed for convenience.

References

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  • Edward Dwelly (1911) “pit”, in Faclair Gàidhlig gu Beurla le Dealbhan [The Illustrated Gaelic–English Dictionary]‎[6], 10th edition, Edinburgh: Birlinn Limited, →ISBN
  • Gregory Toner, Sharon Arbuthnot, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh, Marie-Luise Theuerkauf, Dagmar Wodtko, editors (2019), “pit, (put)”, in eDIL: Electronic Dictionary of the Irish Language

Tocharian B

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Etymology

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(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

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pit ?

  1. gall, bile

West Flemish

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Etymology

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From Middle Dutch pit, variant of put, from Old Dutch *putti, from Proto-West Germanic *puti (“a well”).

Noun

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pit m

  1. pit
  2. well

Yola

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Verb

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pit

  1. Alternative form of pidh
    • 1867, “A YOLA ZONG”, in SONGS, ETC. IN THE DIALECT OF FORTH AND BARGY, number 9, page 88:
      Fan Cournug yate a rishp, an Treblere pit w'eeme.
      When Cournug gave a stroke, and Treblere put with him.

References

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  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 62
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