pit

Noun

• a workplace consisting of a coal mine plus all the buildings and equipment connected with it

• lowered area in front of a stage where an orchestra accompanies the performers

• a surface excavation for extracting stone or slate
  • a British term for `quarry' is `stone pit'
    

• a trap in the form of a concealed hole

• (auto racing) an area at the side of a racetrack where the race cars are serviced and refueled

• (commodity exchange) the part of the floor of a commodity exchange where trading in a particular commodity is carried on

• an enclosure in which animals are made to fight

• (Christianity) the abode of Satan and the forces of evil; where sinners suffer eternal punishment
  • Hurl'd headlong...To bottomless perdition, there to dwell- John Milton
    
  • a demon from the depths of the pit
    
  • Hell is paved with good intentions-Dr. Johnson
    

• 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
    

• a concavity in a surface (especially an anatomical depression)

• a sizeable hole (usually in the ground)
  • they dug a pit to bury the body
    

Verb

• remove the pits from
  • pit plums and cherries
    

• mark with a scar
  • The skin disease scarred his face permanently
    

• 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
    

Related words

• Synonyms: 
  colliery , orchestra pit , quarry , stone pit , pitfall , Hell , perdition , Inferno , infernal region , nether region , stone , endocarp , fossa , cavity , scar , mark , pock , oppose , match , play off