1. A place where charcoal is made. Still in U.S.
1023. Charter Cnut, in Cod. Dipl., IV. 27. Forð bæ hæselholtæ on collpytt: of collpyttæ on swealewan hlypan.
c. 1275. Death, 242, in O. E. Misc., 183. His eye-puttes, as a colput deep ant gret.
c. 1450. Nom., in Wr.-Wülcker, Voc., 718. Fax, a bronde; ticio, a colpytte; fala, a fagot.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 691. Nestorius willing to auoide a colepit, fell into a lime kill … wherby is ment, that in auoyding a lesse error, he fell into a greater.
1828. Webster, Coalpit … in America, a place where charcoal is made.
2. A pit or mine where coal is dug.
[Cf. 1241. Newminster Chartul. (Surtees), 202. Sicut fossatum descendit in Colepeteburn.]
1447. Indenture, in Script. tres Dunelm. (Surtees), App. 313. The colepit in Trillesden, and alsa the colepit in Spennyngmore.
1575. Lanc. Wills, II. 112. Whereas I have a lease … of too cole pittes.
c. 1610. Sir J. Melvil, Mem. (1735), 17. An old Coal-pit which had taken fire.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. iii. I. i. Such as worke day and night in Cole-pits.
1773. Barnard, in Phil. Trans., LXIII. 218. The shaft of a coal-pit, which … had been sunk to the depth of sixty yards.
attrib. 1776. Withering, Brit. Plants (1796), III. 302. On coalpit banks near Stourbridge.
1859. Edin. Rev., CIX. 303. The dismal chapter of coal-pit life.
Hence † Coal-pitter, a pitman.
1720. Lond. Gaz., No. 5818/4. John Proud, of Sunderland … Coal-Pitter.
