pit bull

Informal, pit·tie
Or pit·bull

[pit bool]

noun

1. a stocky, muscular dog with a broad skull and a smooth coat, belonging to an informal category of purebred and mixed-breed dogs that includes the American Staffordshire terrier, the Staffordshire bull terrier, and sometimes the American bulldog or boxer.

2. Also called American pit bull terrier. American Staffordshire terrier.

Word History and Origins

Origin of pit bull¹

First recorded in 1925–30; pit ¹ ( def. ) (in the sense “enclosure for staging animal fights”) + bull(dog) ( def. )

Example Sentences

I still think about the night before I left Los Angeles — the way Matt and I finally stopped pretending we were just friends and how his pit bull, Jesus, slept curled at the edge of the bed while we held each other, fully clothed, knowing we were out of time.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

His dog, Jesus, a striking black-and-white pit bull, followed him everywhere, tail wagging like a punctuation mark.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Our dog is an all-white pit bull and her name is Betty White.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

I love being wherever Maybelle, my gentle, white pit bull, is resting.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The 1991 Act had already banned the ownership of four breeds - the pit bull terrier, the Japanese tosa, dogo argentino and fila brasileiro.

Read more on BBC