pit

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“
You enter Drury Lane at a quarter to seven: the pit is already nearly full: but you find a seat, and a very pleasant one.

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Definitions (83)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (28)

  1. noun A natural or artificial hole or cavity in the ground.
  2. noun An excavation for the removal of mineral deposits; a mine.
  3. noun The shaft of a mine.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (39)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (14)

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Examples (50)

  • The outer circles of the pit were as empty as the orchard valley, but screams rose on the winds, amid howls and the clanging of steel. —  Witch Star.htm
  • Across the blasted landscape, the pit was a void, its edges clouded with smoke and dark mists. —  Witch Star.htm
  • At the bottom of the pit was the original basement floor. —  The Hard Way by Lee Child
  • In the center of the pit was a round fake fireplace. —  Bad Luck and Trouble by Lee Child
  • Then the illusion broke, and the pit was there, easily visible. —  Yasmine Galenorn - [Sisters of the Moon 1] - Witchling
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

cave ·  pool ·  hole ·  chamber ·  lake ·  mound ·  crater ·  valley ·  trench ·  abyss ·  chasm ·  depth

Used in the same contextWord Family

pit:   pits ·  pitting ·  pitted
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English, from Old English pytt, ultimately from Latin puteus, well; see pau-2 in Indo-European roots.
  2. Dutch, from Middle Dutch.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English pit, put, pyt, pette, putte, pytte, from Anglo-Saxon pyt, pytt, a pit, hole, = OFries. pet = Dutch put = Old Low German pute, Middle Low German Low German putte = Old High German puzzi, phuzzi, pfuzi, also puzza, putza, buzza, etc., Middle High German butze, bütze, pfütze, German pfütze = Icelandic pyttr = Swedish puss = Danish pyt = French puits = Walloon putz = Provencal potz, poutz = Spanish poza = Portuguese poço = Italian pozzo, a well, from Latin puteus, a well, a pit: perhaps orig. a spring of pure water, from √ pu in purus, pure: see pure.
  2. from pit, n.
  3. A variant of pip, by confusion with pit.
 

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/pɪt/
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