Showing results for "tar pit"

• a variation of tarpit.

tar pit

American  

[tahr pit] / ˈtɑr ˌpɪt /

noun

tar pits plural

1. an accumulation of natural tar or asphalt that has seeped upward to the earth's surface, especially one that has acted as a natural trap into which animals have fallen, sunk, and had their bones preserved.

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tar pit Scientific  

1. An accumulation of natural tar or asphalt at the Earth's surface, especially one that traps animals and preserves their hard parts. Tar pits form when petroleum in subterranean petroleum-bearing rocks oozes up to the surface. As it rises, the petroleum loses its volatile components, forming a thick tar or asphalt deposit.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• tar pits
  plural

Example Sentences

Today, Nike’s China business is flailing—a cautionary tale of an American giant caught in the tar pit of China’s hypercompetitive and increasingly nationalistic consumer market.

From The Wall Street Journal • May 12, 2026

In 2018, he and colleagues started on an ambitious plan to radiocarbon date bones from a tar pit first excavated in the 1920s.

From Science Magazine • Aug. 16, 2023

The tar pit park is open daily and free.

From Los Angeles Times • Sep. 10, 2021

But thanks to the federal and local governments, an administrative tar pit made it extremely difficult for the private investors to build their energy plants.

From Slate • Jan. 27, 2021

Perhaps, but not because of that blasted medicinal tar pit at the spa of Gooden-Baaden, where he had faked his own death so many years before.

From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood