be the pits

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be the pits

To be particularly bad, unfortunate, or awful, especially of a situation or outcome. Well, this is the pits. I absolutely cannot believe such a huge thunderstorm came through just as we were getting our picnic set up. I was so excited about this job when I first started. I wish I would have known it'd be the pits.

be the pits

be extremely bad or the worst of its kind. informal

Pits is a mid 20th-century informal term for ‘armpits’ and has connotations of body odour; from this it came to refer generally to something regarded as bad or unpleasant.

be the ˈpits

(informal) be very bad; be the worst kind of something: The teaching at this school is the pits. ♢ This newspaper really is the pits. OPPOSITE: be the bomb