 7 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
pit
noun
1: a sizeable hole (usually in the ground); "they dug a pit to
bury the body" [syn: {cavity}]
2: a concavity in a surface (especially an anatomical
depression) [syn: {fossa}]
3: 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" [syn: {stone}, {endocarp}]
4: a trap in the form of a concealed hole [syn: {pitfall}]
5: a surface excavation for extracting stone or slate; "a
British term for 'quarry' is 'stone pit'" [syn: {quarry},
{stone pit}]
6: lowered area in front of a stage where an orchestra
accompanies the performers [syn: {orchestra pit}]
7: a workplace consisting of a coal mine plus all the buildings
and equipment connected with it [syn: {colliery}]
verb
1: 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" [syn: {oppose}, {match}, {play off}]
2: mark with a scar; "The skin disease scarred his face
permanently" [syn: {scar}, {mark}, {pock}]
3: remove the pits from; "pit plums and cherries" [syn: {stone}]
[also: {pitting}, {pitted}]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Pit \Pit\, noun [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 stop}, See {pit stop} in the vocabulary.
{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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Pit \Pit\, verb (used with an object) [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.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
342 Moby Thesaurus words for "pit":
American Stock Exchange, Amex, L, R, Wall Street, abysm, abyss,
acorn, acting area, agora, alveolation, alveolus, amphitheater,
antrum, apron, apron stage, arena, armpit, athletic field,
audience, auditorium, auditory, background, backstage, balcony,
band shell, bandstand, bank, barrow, basin, bear garden,
beehive tomb, berry, bird seed, birthmark, blackhead, bleb,
blemish, blister, board, bone house, bourse, bowl, box, box grave,
box seat, boxing ring, bridge, bull ring, bulla, burial,
burial chamber, burial mound, campus, canvas, catacombs, cavity,
cenotaph, charnel house, chasm, check, cicatrix, circus, cist,
cist grave, coal mine, cockpit, coliseum, colliery, colosseum,
comedo, commodity exchange, concave, concavity, congregation,
corn pit, coulisse, counter, course, crack, crater, craze,
crevasse, cromlech, crypt, cup, curb, curb exchange, curb market,
deep, deep six, defacement, defect, deformation, deformity, dent,
depress, depression, depth, dig, diggings, dimple, dint, dip,
disfiguration, disfigurement, distortion, dock, dokhma, dolmen,
dress circle, dressing room, engrave, excavation, exchange,
exchange floor, fault, fauteuil, feel, field, finish, flaw,
flaxseed, flies, floor, fly floor, fly gallery, fold, follicle,
forestage, forum, freckle, fruit, funnel chest, furrow, gallery,
gold mine, gouge, grain, granular texture, grave, greenroom, grid,
gridiron, ground, groundling, gulf, gym, gymnasium, hall, hayseed,
hemangioma, hickey, hippodrome, hole, hollow, hollow shell,
honeycomb, house, house of death, impress, impression, imprint,
indent, indentation, indention, indenture, keloid, kernel, kink,
knub, lacuna, last home, lentigo, lightboard, linseed, lists,
locale, loge, long home, low green tent, low house, marketplace,
mastaba, mat, match, mausoleum, milieu, milium, mine, mole,
monstrance, mummy chamber, nap, narrow house, needle scar, nevus,
nigger heaven, notch, nub, nut, open cut, open forum, opencast,
orchestra, orchestra circle, orchestra pit, ossuarium, ossuary,
outside market, over-the-counter market, palaestra, parade ground,
paradise, parquet, parquet circle, parterre, passage grave,
peanut gallery, performing area, pile, pimple, pip, place,
platform, pock, pocket, pockmark, port-wine mark, port-wine stain,
precinct, press in, print, prize ring, proscenium,
proscenium boxes, proscenium stage, protuberance, public square,
punch, punch bowl, punch in, purlieu, pustule, pyramid, quarry,
quotation board, range, recess, reliquary, resting place, rift,
ring, scab, scar, scene, scene of action, scenery, scoop, scratch,
sebaceous cyst, seed, sepulcher, set back, set in, setting, shaft,
shaft grave, shag, shell, shrine, sink, sinus, site, socket,
spectator, sphere, split, squared circle, stadium, stage,
stage left, stage right, stage set, stage setting, stall, stamp,
standing room, stock exchange, stock market, stock ticker, stone,
strawberry mark, structure, stupa, sty, sunken part, surface,
surface texture, switchboard, tamp, telephone market, terrain,
texture, the Big Board, the Exchange, the boards, theater,
theatre stall, third market, ticker, ticker tape, tilting ground,
tiltyard, tomb, tope, tower of silence, track, trough, tumulus,
twist, vault, verruca, vesicle, vie, vug, wale, walk, warp, wart,
weal, weave, well, welt, wen, wheat pit, whitehead, wings, woof,
workings, wrestling ring, yawning abyss
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03) [foldoc]:
PIT
Language for IBM 650. (See {IT}).
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
Pit
a hole in the ground (Ex. 21:33, 34), a cistern for water (Gen.
37:24; Jer. 14:3), a vault (41:9), a grave (Ps. 30:3). It is
used as a figure for mischief (Ps. 9:15), and is the name given
to the unseen place of woe (Rev. 20:1, 3). The slime-pits in the
vale of Siddim were wells which yielded asphalt (Gen. 14:10).
From Virtual Entity of Relevant Acronyms (Version 1.9, June 2002) [vera]:
PIT
Programmable Interval Timer
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