Dictionary

bottomless pit en · NOUN

Etymology

From Revelation 9:1–12.

Meanings

1. (literally) A pit with no visible bottom and apparently infinite depth.
2. Hell.
   • 1769, The Bible, King James Version, Oxford Standard Text, Revelation, 9:11, And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
3. (figuratively) An endless resource or supply.
   • Lipsius was replaced at Leyden by Joseph Justus Scaliger (1540-1609), the French Protestant scholar who was known to contemporaries as "the bottomless pit of erudition." 1994, Donald Frederick Lach, Asia in the Making of Europe:
4. (figuratively) A person with an apparently boundless appetite; an entity or problem which consumes seemingly endless resources.
   • 2006: The Club For Growth: Bottomless Pit (blog entry), Phillip Rodokanakis In other words, we will continue throwing good money after bad, trying to feed a bottomless pit's insatiable appetite for taxpayer dollars.
5. An in-game hazard made up of a deep hole or void with no visible bottom, falling into which typically costs the player a life.

Forms

Hyponyms

money pit

Synonyms

black hole · abyss · death pit

Translations (25)

it pozzo senza fondo (person with boundless appetite; entity or problem which consumes endless resources) · ar هَاوِيَة (hell) · sv bottenlöst hål (A pit with no visible (infinite) bottom) · tr dipsiz kuyu (A pit with no visible (infinite) bottom) · fr abîme (endless resource or supply) · de Fass ohne Boden (person with boundless appetite; entity or problem which consumes endless resources) · es pozo sin fondo (person with boundless appetite; entity or problem which consumes endless resources) · fr puits sans fond (person with boundless appetite; entity or problem which consumes endless resources) · fi ehtymätön lähde (endless resource or supply) · es barril sin fondo (person with boundless appetite; entity or problem which consumes endless resources) · fi pohjaton kaivo (person with boundless appetite; entity or problem which consumes endless resources) · id anjing menggonggong tulang (person with boundless appetite; entity or problem which consumes endless resources) · es tragaldabas (person with boundless appetite; entity or problem which consumes endless resources) · es pozo sin fondo (A pit with no visible (infinite) bottom) · hu feneketlen zsák (person with boundless appetite; entity or problem which consumes endless resources) · fi syvyys (hell) · ang grundlēas pytt (A pit with no visible (infinite) bottom) · sv avgrund (hell) · ar هَاوِيَة (A pit with no visible (infinite) bottom) · fi pohjaton kaivo (endless resource or supply) · th ช่องบาดาล (hell) · sh vreća bez dna (person with boundless appetite; entity or problem which consumes endless resources) · fr abîme (hell) · cmn 無底洞 /无底洞 (A pit with no visible (infinite) bottom) · fi pohjaton kuilu (A pit with no visible (infinite) bottom)