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Pit of the stomach   /pɪt əv ðə stˈəmək/   Listen
noun
Pit  n.  
1.
A large cavity or hole in the ground, either natural or artificial; a cavity in the surface of a body; an indentation; specifically:
(a)
The shaft of a coal mine; a coal pit.
(b)
A large hole in the ground from which material is dug or quarried; as, a stone pit; a gravel pit; or in which material is made by burning; as, a lime pit; a charcoal pit.
(c)
A vat sunk in the ground; as, a tan pit. "Tumble me into some loathsome pit."
2.
Any abyss; especially, the grave, or hades. "Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained." "He keepth back his soul from the pit."
3.
A covered deep hole for entrapping wild beasts; a pitfall; hence, a trap; a snare. Also used figuratively. "The anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits."
4.
A depression or hollow in the surface of the human body; as:
(a)
The hollow place under the shoulder or arm; the axilla, or armpit.
(b)
See Pit of the stomach (below).
(c)
The indentation or mark left by a pustule, as in smallpox.
5.
Formerly, that part of a theater, on the floor of the house, below the level of the stage and behind the orchestra; now, in England, commonly the part behind the stalls; in the United States, the parquet; also, the occupants of such a part of a theater.
6.
An inclosed area into which gamecocks, dogs, and other animals are brought to fight, or where dogs are trained to kill rats. "As fiercely as two gamecocks in the pit."
7.
(Bot.)
(a)
The endocarp of a drupe, and its contained seed or seeds; a stone; as, a peach pit; a cherry pit, etc.
(b)
A depression or thin spot in the wall of a duct.
Cold pit (Hort.), an excavation in the earth, lined with masonry or boards, and covered with glass, but not artificially heated, used in winter for the storing and protection of half-hardly plants, and sometimes in the spring as a forcing bed.
Pit coal, coal dug from the earth; mineral coal.
Pit frame, the framework over the shaft of a coal mine.
Pit head, the surface of the ground at the mouth of a pit or mine.
Pit kiln, an oven for coking coal.
Pit martin (Zool.), the bank swallow. (Prov. Eng.)
Pit of the stomach (Anat.), the depression on the middle line of the epigastric region of the abdomen at the lower end of the sternum; the infrasternal depression.
Pit saw (Mech.), a saw worked by two men, one of whom stands on the log and the other beneath it. The place of the latter is often in a pit, whence the name.
pit stop, See pit stop in the vocabulary.
Pit viper (Zool.), any viperine snake having a deep pit on each side of the snout. The rattlesnake and copperhead are examples.
Working pit (Min.), a shaft in which the ore is hoisted and the workmen carried; in distinction from a shaft used for the pumps.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Pit of the stomach" Quotes from Famous Books



... middle of the room, talking with my friends, who were lounging upon a sofa placed in a sort of alcove, at the farther end, when the same fine nervous thrill, of which I have spoken, suddenly shot through me. But this time it was accompanied with a burning sensation at the pit of the stomach; and, instead of growing upon me with the gradual pace of healthy slumber, and resolving me, as before, into air, it came with the intensity of a pang, and shot throbbing along the nerves to the extremities of my body. The sense of limitation—-of the confinement of our senses ...
— The Lands of the Saracen - Pictures of Palestine, Asia Minor, Sicily, and Spain • Bayard Taylor
... these imaginary ills come from physical causes. The hypochondrium is supposed to be affected, and as it is located under the "short ribs," the hypochondriac continuously suffers from that awful "sinking at the pit of the stomach" that makes him feel as if the bottom had dropped out of life itself. He can neither eat, digest his food, walk, sit, rest, work, take pleasure, exercise, or sleep. His body is the victim of innumerable ills. His tongue, his lips, his mouth are dry and parched, his throat full ...
— Quit Your Worrying! • George Wharton James
... ribs join the sternum, and when these are found the lower ribs may be easily counted in a moderately thin subject. At the lower part of the sternum, where the seventh or last true ribs join it, the ensiform cartilage begins, and over this there is often a depression popularly known as the pit of the stomach. The nipple in the male is situated in front of the fourth rib or a little below; vertically it lies a little external to a line drawn down from the middle of the clavicle; in the female it is not so constant. A little below it the lower limit of the great pectoral muscle is seen ...
— Project Gutenberg Encyclopedia
... sister with wide, expectant eyes. Suspense was evidently his dominant feeling at the moment. A suspense which gave him a sickly feeling in the pit of the stomach. It was the apprehension of a prisoner awaiting a verdict; the nauseating sensation of one who sees death facing him, with the chances a thousand to one against him. A half-plaited rawhide rope was lying ...
— The One-Way Trail - A story of the cattle country • Ridgwell Cullum
... king who invariably curried his horses in his royal robes; and if the steeds didn't stand around to suit him, he would ever and anon welt them in the pit of the stomach with his cast-iron sceptre. It was greatly to the interest of his horses not to incur the royal displeasure, as the reader ...
— Remarks • Bill Nye


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