subs. (old).—1. A breast pocket in a coat. Also, a fob.—GROSE (1785); VAUX (1819). Hence PITMAN = a pocket-book.
2. (venery).—The female pudendum: also BOTTOMLESS PIT, PIT-HOLE, PIT-MOUTH, and PIT OF DARKNESS: see MONOSYLLABLE. Hence, TO LAY PIT AND BOXES (or BACK AND FRONT SHOPS) INTO ONE (see quot. 1785).
d. 1674. HERRICK, Poems, ‘Cherry-pit.’
| Julia and I did lately sit | |
| Playing for sport, at Cherry-pit: | |
| She threw; I cast; and having thrown, | |
| I got the PIT, and she the Stone. |
1785. GROSE, A Classical Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, s.v. PIT. To lay pit and boxes into one; an operation in midwifery or copulation, whereby the division between the anus and vagina is cut through, broken, and demolished: a simile borrowed from the playhouse, when, for the benefit of some favourite player, the pit and boxes are laid together.
3. (old).—See quot. 1696.—GROSE (1785).
c. 1696. B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. PIT, the hole under the gallows into which those that Pay not the Fee, viz., 6s. 8d., are cast and Buried.
KNIGHT OF THE PIT, subs. phr. (old).—A cocker.
TO SHOOT (or FLY) THE PIT, verb. phr. (old).—To turn tail [Cocking].
1740. R. NORTH, Examen, 327. The whole nation … expressing utmost detestation and abhorrence of the Whig principles, which made the whole party SHOOT THE PIT and retire.
1740. RICHARDSON, Pamela, II. 308. We were all to blame to make madam here FLY THE PIT as she did.
