What is "pit of the stomach"

Pit \Pit\, n. [OE. pit, put, AS. pytt a pit, hole, L. puteus a well, pit.]

1. A large cavity or hole in the ground, either natural or artificial; a cavity in the surface of a body; an indentation; specifically:

   1. The shaft of a coal mine; a coal pit.

   2. A large hole in the ground from which material is dug or quarried; as, a stone pit; a gravel pit; or in which material is made by burning; as, a lime pit; a charcoal pit.

   3. A vat sunk in the ground; as, a tan pit.

      Tumble me into some loathsome pit.
      --Shak.

2. Any abyss; especially, the grave, or hades.

   Back to the infernal pit I drag thee chained.
   --Milton.

   He keepth back his soul from the pit.
   --Job xxxiii. 18.

3. A covered deep hole for entrapping wild beasts; a pitfall; hence, a trap; a snare. Also used figuratively.

   The anointed of the Lord was taken in their pits.
   --Lam. iv. 20.

4. A depression or hollow in the surface of the human body; as:

   1. The hollow place under the shoulder or arm; the axilla, or armpit.

   2. See Pit of the stomach (below).

   3. The indentation or mark left by a pustule, as in smallpox.

5. Formerly, that part of a theater, on the floor of the house, below the level of the stage and behind the orchestra; now, in England, commonly the part behind the stalls; in the United States, the parquet; also, the occupants of such a part of a theater.

6. An inclosed area into which gamecocks, dogs, and other animals are brought to fight, or where dogs are trained to kill rats. ``As fiercely as two gamecocks in the pit.''
   --Locke.

7. [Cf. D. pit, akin to E. pith.] (Bot.)

   1. The endocarp of a drupe, and its contained seed or seeds; a stone; as, a peach pit; a cherry pit, etc.

   2. A depression or thin spot in the wall of a duct.

      Cold pit (Hort.), an excavation in the earth, lined with masonry or boards, and covered with glass, but not artificially heated, -- used in winter for the storing and protection of half-hardly plants, and sometimes in the spring as a forcing bed.

      Pit coal, coal dug from the earth; mineral coal.

      Pit frame, the framework over the shaft of a coal mine.

      Pit head, the surface of the ground at the mouth of a pit or mine.

      Pit kiln, an oven for coking coal.

      Pit martin (Zo["o]l.), the bank swallow. [Prov. Eng.]

      Pit of the stomach (Anat.), the depression on the middle line of the epigastric region of the abdomen at the lower end of the sternum; the infrasternal depression.

      Pit saw (Mech.), a saw worked by two men, one of whom stands on the log and the other beneath it. The place of the latter is often in a pit, whence the name.

      pit stop, See pit stop in the vocabulary.

      Pit viper (Zo["o]l.), any viperine snake having a deep pit on each side of the snout. The rattlesnake and copperhead are examples.

      Working pit (Min.), a shaft in which the ore is hoisted and the workmen carried; -- in distinction from a shaft used for the pumps.

n. The bottom of the abdomen

n. a slight depression in the midline just below the sternum (where a blow can affect the solar plexus) [syn: epigastric fossa]