barbecue pit
3
2.4
- noun
- /ˈbɑːrbɪˌkjuː pɪt/
- US
:
hoyo de barbacoa
- "We all knew he would," Bea says, recounting the familiar story again to a group of us around the barbecue pit.
- picnic area with barbecue pit
- building a barbecue pit
Examples
-
He spent the afternoon cooking ribs in the barbecue pit in his backyard.
-
We got a barbecue pit there.
-
The barbecue pit has seen better days, and you have a party scheduled for next weekend.
Blog text (11) -
I could see a family posed by a barbecue pit.
Fiction book (1991) -
I imagined it over and over as I headed out back to the barbecue pit.
Fiction book (1999) -
We see a barbecue pit, homemade ice cream in the metal can, and other picnic things.
Fiction book (1991) -
We ate that night at a roadside barbecue pit under the stars.
Fiction book (1994) -
Many campground parks have picnic tables and barbecue pits at each of their campsites.
Blog text (27) -
We enjoyed grilling steaks in our new barbecue pit last weekend.
-
The kids roasted marshmallows over the barbecue pit at our family gathering.
Synonyms
4
2.9
An outdoor place that holds a fire for warmth or cooking
How Big
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward composition of 'barbecue' (to cook over fire) and 'pit' (a hole), so its meaning — a hole or dug area used for barbecuing — is directly inferable from the constituents. This is a literal, cross-linguistically common noun compound following normal English noun + noun composition, so a B1 learner who knows both words should understand it.
Etymology
The noun barbecue pit comes from a simple picture: people dig a pit in the ground, burn wood to make hot coals, and cook meat for a barbecue. That's why barbecue pit means a place dug or built to hold hot coals for 'cooking meat outdoors'.