tar pit
4
7.6
- noun
- /tɑr pɪt/
:
poza de alquitrán
- i walk around the la brea tar pits, which i consider a holy place, and they suddenly seem like a vision of hell.
So I used to work when I was in Graduate School, I spent three years excavating a tar pit site down in Ecuador.
- So I used to work when I was in Graduate School, I spent three years excavating a tar pit site down in Ecuador.
Examples
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i drove down to the tar pits.
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We know it broke through here at the tar pits, created this vent.
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we did stake out the tar pits for the first 24 hours.
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We're coming up on the tar pits.
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The tar pits will be open in five minutes.
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Some of its cousins got stuck in the La Brea tar pits and are still hanging around Los Angeles.
Fiction book (1991) -
we staked out the la brea tar pits.
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The camaraderie, the purity of purpose, the Tuesday meatloaf as the cafe overlooking the tar pits.
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Mitch, I don't know how to describe this, but the tar... the tar pits themselves are on fire and they're right now spilling out onto Wilshire Boulevard.
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Long ago, Ice Age animals fell into the tar pit and drowned.
How Sticky
Surface Forms
Morphology
The noun phrase 'tar pit' is transparently compositional: 'tar' (viscous residue) combined with 'pit' (a hole) yields the straightforward idea of a hole containing tar. A B1 learner who knows both words can infer the basic meaning easily, although specific geological or paleontological details (e.g., preservation of remains) are additional factual knowledge.
Etymology
Tar pit comes from a simple, literal image: a deep pit filled with thick, sticky tar where animals could step in and get stuck. Their bodies and bones stayed in the black tar and were often kept for thousands of years, so the name now means a natural place that 'traps' and 'preserves' ancient animals.