the pits

noun

Something miserable or unpleasant.

“This whole experience has been the pits.”

Similar
the dumpshellhell on earthhellholesnake pitinferno
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Meanings

nounthe pits pl (plural only)
  1. pluralplural onlyslangSomething miserable or unpleasant.

    This whole experience has been the pits.

    2 more examples

    A bad exam experience would be ‘I'm wasted’ at Howard,..‘It was the pits’ at Vassar.

    1953, Joseph Becker Phillips, Malcolm Muir, Raymond Moley, Rex Smith, Samuel Thurston Williamson (contributors), Newsweek, volume 42, page 54

    Ain't that the pits... I'm actually gonna have to wait for another customer in this crazy heat? That's harsh...

    1995, HAL Laboratory, EarthBound, Nintendo, Super Nintendo Entertainment System

    Synonyms: the dumps

Synonyms & antonyms

nounSomething miserable or unpleasant.

Similar
the dumps

More synonyms by meaning

nounany place of pain and turmoil

Similar
hellhell on earthhellholesnake pitinferno
Broader
regionpart
Also see
hellhellholehell on earthinfernosnake pitthe dumps

Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.

Origin

Theorized to be a shortened form of armpits, i.e., somewhere or something unpleasant or undesirable. First use appears c. 1953. See cite below.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

the pits. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/the%20pits

MLA

“the pits.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/the%20pits. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “the pits,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/the%20pits.

Source: the pits on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.