a bottomless pit

1. A person who is always hungry. Her teenage son was like a bottomless pit as he devoured every last bit of food in the house. Sheesh, these kids are like a bottomless pit. Food vanishes almost as soon as I'm done cooking it! It makes no sense—my dad is super skinny, even though he's like a bottomless pit at mealtimes!

2. A situation that requires a seemingly endless amount of money or resources. With all the money and time we've sunk into repairs for the roof, windows, and foundation, this house has become a bottomless pit. The problem with buying used cars is that, even if they started off being cheap, they often turn into bottomless pits as they start breaking down. I bought this restaurant because of its prime downtown location, but with all the repairs and the huge amount of staff needed to run it, it's proven to be quite a bottomless pit.

3. The limitless cause or source of something, typically something difficult or problematic. Everything is going wrong lately, like challenges are coming from a bottomless pit or something. In my experience as a semi-famous person, social media is a bottomless pit of negativity. Someone is always unhappy with you about something. A cancer diagnosis is truly a bottomless pit of tests, scans, and doctors' appointments.

See also: bottomless, pit

the bottomless pit

euphemism Hell. The phrase comes from the Bible. Repent now, o ye sinners, or be cast into the bottomless pit for all eternity!

See also: bottomless, pit

a bottomless ˈpit (of something)

a thing or situation which seems to have no limits or seems never to end: There isn’t a bottomless pit of money for public spending. ♢ the bottomless pit of his sorrow

See also: bottomless, pit

Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary © Farlex 2017

bottomless pit

1. n. a very hungry person. The guy is a bottomless pit. There isn’t enough food in town to fill him up.

2. n. an endless source of something, usually something troublesome. Our problems come from a bottomless pit. There is just no end to them.

See also: bottomless, pit

bottomless pit, the

Hell; also, something or someone that uses up all one’s energy or resources. The expression appears several times in the Bible, most notably in the Book of Revelation (“and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit,” 9:1; “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit,” 20:1). In the eighteenth century, the term was humorously used for the English statesman William Pitt the younger (1759– 1806), who was very thin, and it still is jocularly used for a seemingly insatiable individual of huge appetite.