Pit Meaning
/pɪt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA hole in the ground.
nounAn area at a racetrack used for refueling and repairing the vehicles during a race.
Sentence Examples
He fell into the bottomless pit.
I dug a pit.
We dug a deep pit in the yard.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The workers dug a massive ____ to dispose of the toxic waste.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The miners descended into the deep ____ each morning to extract coal from the underground seams.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-West Germanic *puti Old English pytt Middle English pit English pit 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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"27 Whoso diggeth a pit, shall fall therein: and he that rolleth a stone, it will returne vpon him."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Proverbs 26:27:
"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."
— 1991 [1987], Zou Zongxu, translated by Susan Whitfield, The Land Within the Passes: A History of Xian, Viking, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 68:
"[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, […]."
— 2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
"Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained."
— 1667, John Milton, “Book IV”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:
"He keepeth back his soul from the pit."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Job xxxiii:18:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The workers dug a massive ____ to dispose of the toxic waste.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The miners descended into the deep ____ each morning to extract coal from the underground seams.