coal-pit
(ˈkəʊlpɪt)
1. A place where charcoal is made. Still in U.S.
| 1023 Charter Cnut in Cod. Dipl. IV. 27 Forð bæ hæselholtæ on collpytt: of collpyttæ on swealewan hlypan. c 1275 Death 242 in O.E. Misc. 183 His eye-puttes, as a colput deep ant gret. c 1450 Nom. in Wr.-Wülcker Voc. 718 Fax, a bronde; ticio, a colpytte; fala, a fagot. 1577 tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 691 Nestorius willing to auoide a colepit, fell into a lime kill..wherby is ment, that in auoyding a lesse error, he fell into a greater. 1828 Webster, Coalpit..in America, a place where charcoal is made. |
2. A pit or mine where coal is dug.
| [Cf. 1241 Newminster Chartul. (Surtees) 202 Sicut fossatum descendit in Colepeteburn.] |
| 1447 Indenture in Script. tres Dunelm. (Surtees) App. 313 The colepit in Trillesden, and alsa the colepit in Spennyngmore. 1575 Lanc. Wills II. 112 Whereas I have a lease..of too cole pittes. c 1610 Sir J. Melvil Mem. (1735) 17 An old Coal-pit which had taken fire. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. i. i, Such as worke day and night in Cole-pits. 1773 Barnard in Phil. Trans. LXIII. 218 The shaft of a coal-pit, which..had been sunk to the depth of sixty yards. |
| attrib. 1776 Withering Brit. Plants (1796) III. 302 On coalpit banks near Stourbridge. 1859 Edin. Rev. CIX. 303 The dismal chapter of coal-pit life. |
Hence
† coal-pitter, a pitman.
| 1720 Lond. Gaz. No. 5818/4 John Proud, of Sunderland..Coal-Pitter. |