Skip to main content
peach pit

peach pit

1 3.1
A hard stone in the middle of a peach that contains the seed
  • noun
  • /piːt/
translation icon : hueso de durazno
  • But he had saved, too, had saved dried peach pits and put them in a box which Miss Foyt had sent away—the pits were used in gas masks, somehow.

Examples

  • I made a ship in a bottle once, and just for kicks, I threw a peach pit in there on top of the upper deck.

    Fiction book (2002)
  • I opened it to find a simple jewel, a ruby as big as a peach pit.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • Besides, how's a peach pit ever supposed to become a tree if you never give it the chance to grow?

  • Studying the peach pit.

    Fiction book (1990)
  • Before it started scabbing, it spit out a number of things: a collar button and a piece of wool collar from the shirt he had been wearing when he was hit, a shard of soft grey metal as big as a quarter dollar piece, and, unaccountably, something that closely resembled a peach pit.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • After eating the delicious peach, I discarded the peach pit in the compost.

  • She carefully removed the peach pit before slicing the fruit for the salad.

  • The children found a peach pit in the garden and decided to plant it to grow a new tree.

Synonyms

stone
vspeach pit
60 3.9

The hard inner part of some fruits that contains the seed

is specific to one fruit type rather than fruits in general
pit
vspeach pit
  • US
49 3.2

A hard inner stone in fruits like peaches

is limited to one fruit type not fruits in general
noyau
vspeach pit
  • Specialized
9.9

A hard stone inside some fruits that contains the seed

is the ordinary label for that fruit centre rather than a special term

Surface Forms

peach pit singular
peach pits plural

Morphology

peach + pit

The meaning 'the hard stone in the center of a peach' is directly and compositionally derived from 'peach' (the fruit) plus 'pit' (the hard inner stone). This simple noun–noun compound follows a common and cross-linguistic pattern, so a B1 learner who knows both constituents will readily understand it.

Etymology

Peach pit is the simple name for the hard part found in the middle of a peach. The word pit means a hard 'stone' or 'seed' that you remove before eating or plant to grow a new tree, so the phrase points to that inner seed.