coal pit
Americannoun
-
a pit where coal is dug.
-
a place where charcoal is made.
Etymology
Origin of coal pit
before 1050; Middle English colpytte, Old English collpytt
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.
In Shanxi, the province that sits at the heart of China's coal-mining industry, there's long been a saying: "Only go down a coal pit when you have no other way out."
From BBC ● May 31, 2026
"We may assume that this ship is Roman, but we are unsure of its exact age," he told Reuters at the dusty site hanging precariously above a vast open coal pit.
From Reuters ● Aug. 3, 2023
Turns out, it was a state-of-the-art coal pit when the home was built.
From Seattle Times ● Oct. 25, 2020
Deep in an old coal pit in Staffordshire, he recited “Friends, Romans, countrymen…” for his father until the methane in the air made the boy collapse.
From New York Times ● Jul. 28, 2020
Do you know that Smelter, itself, is built on two-thousand acres of coal lands—stolen—stolen from the Government as clearly as if the Smelter teams had hauled it from a Government coal pit?
From The Freebooters of the Wilderness by Laut, Agnes C. (Agnes Christina)
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.