a gathering of spectators or listeners at a (usually public) performance; "the audience applauded"; "someone in the audience began to cough"
the part of the general public interested in a source of information or entertainment; "every artist needs an audience"; "the broadcast reached an audience of millions"
a surface excavation for extracting stone or slate; "a British term for `quarry' is `stone pit'"
a trap in the form of a concealed hole
a sizeable hole (usually in the ground); "they dug a pit to bury the body"
a concavity in a surface (especially an anatomical depression)
remove the pits from; "pit plums and cherries"
set into opposition or rivalry; "let them match their best athletes against ours"; "pit a chess player against the Russian champion"; "He plays his two children off against each other"
the solid bony part of the tail of an animal as distinguished from the hair
landing in a harbor next to a pier where ships are loaded and unloaded or repaired; may have gates to let water in or out; "the ship arrived at the dock more than a day late"
an enclosure in a court of law where the defendant sits during the trial
a platform where trucks or trains can be loaded or unloaded
any of certain coarse weedy plants with long taproots, sometimes used as table greens or in folk medicine
(Christianity) the abode of Satan and the forces of evil; where sinners suffer eternal punishment; "Hurl'd headlong...To bottomless perdition, there to dwell"- John Milton; "a demon from the depths of the pit"
a cause of difficulty and suffering; "war is hell"; "go to blazes"
any place of pain and turmoil; "the hell of battle"; "the inferno of the engine room"; "when you're alone Christmas is the pits";
a section or portion of a journey or course; "then we embarked on the second stage of our Caribbean cruise"
a large platform on which people can stand and can be seen by an audience; "he clambered up onto the stage and got the actors to help him into the box"
a small platform on a microscope where the specimen is mounted for examination
the theater as a profession (usually `the stage'); "an early movie simply showed a long kiss by two actors of the contemporary stage"
any scene regarded as a setting for exhibiting or doing something; "All the world's a stage"--Shakespeare; "it set the stage for peaceful negotiations"
plan, organize, and carry out (an event); "the neighboring tribe staged an invasion"
perform (a play), especially on a stage; "we are going to stage `Othello'"
a compartment in a stable where a single animal is confined and fed
seating in the forward part of the main level of a theater
a malfunction in the flight of an aircraft in which there is a sudden loss of lift that results in a downward plunge; "the plane went into a stall and I couldn't control it"
deliberately delay an event or action; "she doesn't want to write the report, so she is stalling"
come to a stop; "The car stalled in the driveway"
cause an engine to stop; "The inexperienced driver kept stalling the car"