the pits
(redirected from it's the pits)the pits
A very unpleasant or unfortunate thing, situation, or circumstance. I'm sorry to hear about your divorce, Sam—that's the pits! I worked as a telemarketer one summer, and it was the pits.
See also: pit
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. © 2015 Farlex, Inc, all rights reserved.
the pits
The worst possible situation, as in Spending your birthday working alone is the pits, or That job is the pits. The allusion in this term is unclear. Some think it refers to coal pits, others to armpits, and still others to the area beside an auto racecourse, also called the pits, where cars are serviced during a race. [Second half of 1900s]
See also: pit
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
the pits
SPOKENIf you describe something as the pits, you mean that it is extremely bad. Mary Ann asked him how dinner had been. `The pits,' he replied. Reading someone else's diary is the pits.
See also: pit
Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012
pits
1. n. the armpits. (Usually crude.) Man, you have a problem in your pits.
2. and the pits n. anything really bad. (Always with the in this sense.) This whole day was the pits from beginning to end.
3. and the pits n. the depths of despair. (Always with the in this sense. Often with in as in the example.) It’s always in the pits with him.
See also: pit
the pits
verbSee pits
See also: pit
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.