the pits

Idioms

The worst possible situation, as in Spending your birthday working alone is the pits, or That job is the pits. The allusion in this term is unclear. Some think it refers to coal pits, others to armpits, and still others to the area beside an auto racecourse, also called the pits, where cars are serviced during a race. [Second half of 1900s]

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

They opened for dealing in the pits of the Kansas City Board of Trade.

From The Wall Street Journal

But since the pits closed almost four decades ago, residents describe a slow and pained decline as people struggled to get well-paid, stable employment.

From BBC

The four-time champion had an off at Turn Five on his first lap out of the pits but was able to rejoin.

From BBC

Zed was discovered two decades ago when the Los Angeles County Museum of Art began carving out an underground parking garage next door to the pits.

From The Wall Street Journal

To date, La Brea Tar Pits researchers have unearthed millions of samples from the pits dating back 50,000 years and still conduct daily open-air excavations.

From Los Angeles Times

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023