1. [n]  a workplace consisting of a coal mine plus all the buildings and equipment connected with it
2. [n]  lowered area in front of a stage where an orchestra accompanies the performers
3. [n]  a surface excavation for extracting stone or slate; "a British term for `quarry' is `stone pit'"
4. [n]  a trap in the form of a concealed hole
5. [n]  a sizeable hole (usually in the ground); "they dug a pit to bury the body"
6. [n]  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"
7. [n]  a concavity in a surface (especially an anatomical depression)
8. [v]  remove the pits from, as of certain fruit such as peaches
9. [v]  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"
10. [v]  mark with a scar; "The skin disease scarred his face permanently"

1. \Pit\, n. [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 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.
   
   

2. \Pit\, v. t. [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.
   
   

Language for IBM 650. (See it).

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).