ˈlime-pit
[f. lime n.1]
1. a. A limestone quarry. b. A pit in which lime is burnt.
| c 1440 Gesta Rom. lxx. 324 (Harl. MS.) Men that havith great plente of fire, for stonys to be brent in your lyme⁓pyttis. 1489–90 in Swayne Churchw. Acc. Sarum (1896) 371 Cariage of Rubrish fro the lymepittes to the ch., 6d. |
2. A pit in which tanners dress skins with lime to remove the hair, etc.
| 1591 Percivall Sp. Dict., Pelambrera, a tanners lime pit, depilatorium. 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. xiii. 218 It is a nusance..to corrupt or poison a water-course by erecting a dyehouse or a lime-pit for the use of trade, in the upper part of the stream. 1839 Ure Dict. Arts 764 They [skins] are left in the lime-pits for about twelve days, when they are stripped of their hair [etc.]. |