the pits

Idioms  

1. 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]

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

the pits

First, there was the time gained by what Stella called a "huge" first lap out of the pits by Antonelli after his stop.

From BBC ● May 3, 2026

In the days of floor trading, those working in the pits needed to be human calculators, instantly assessing how prices fluctuated.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 26, 2026

Palou, whose Ganassi team excelled in the pits last April, agreed.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 16, 2026

Stranded out on track with a gearbox malfunction, he made it back to the pits where the team rushed to fix a problem they could not identify.

From BBC ● Mar. 14, 2026

And on still, breathless nights he was sleeping in the fields to keep from being suffocated by the bad air from the pits.

From "The House of the Scorpion" by Nancy Farmer