pit vs shaft

pit

noun
  • A hole in the ground. 

  • A mine. 

  • A hole or trench in the ground, excavated according to grid coordinates, so that the provenance of any feature observed and any specimen or artifact revealed may be established by precise measurement. 

  • The bottom part of something. 

  • Armpit. 

  • A mosh pit. 

  • Formerly, that part of a theatre, on the floor of the house, below the level of the stage and behind the orchestra; now, in England, commonly the part behind the stalls; in the United States, the parquet; also, the occupants of such a part of a theatre. 

  • An undesirable location, especially an unclean one. 

  • A section of the marching band containing mallet percussion instruments and other large percussion instruments too large to march, such as the tam tam. Also, the area on the sidelines where these instruments are placed. 

  • A bed. 

  • A luggage hold. 

  • A shell in a drupe containing a seed. 

  • The emergency department. 

  • The core of an implosion nuclear weapon, consisting of the fissile material and any neutron reflector or tamper bonded to it. 

  • A pit bull terrier. 

  • A seed inside a fruit; a stone or pip inside a fruit. 

  • An area at a racetrack used for refueling and repairing the vehicles during a race. 

  • Part of a casino which typically holds tables for blackjack, craps, roulette, and other games. 

  • A trading pit. 

  • A small surface hole or depression, a fossa. 

  • The center of the line. 

  • Only used in the pits. 

  • The grave, underworld or Hell. 

  • The indented mark left by a pustule, as in smallpox. 

  • An enclosed area into which gamecocks, dogs, and other animals are brought to fight, or where dogs are trained to kill rats. 

verb
  • To make pits in; to mark with little hollows. 

  • To put (an animal) into a pit for fighting. 

  • To return to the pits during a race for refuelling, tyre changes, repairs etc. 

  • To remove the stone from a stone fruit or the shell from a drupe. 

  • To bring (something) into opposition with something else. 

shaft

noun
  • A vertical or inclined passage sunk into the earth as part of a mine 

  • A vertical passage housing a lift or elevator; a liftshaft. 

  • A beam or ray of light. 

  • Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin. 

  • The main axis of a feather. 

  • Any column or pillar, particularly the body of a column between its capital and pedestal. 

  • The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin. 

  • The chamber of a blast furnace. 

  • A ventilation or heating conduit; an air duct. 

  • A relatively small area of precipitation that an onlook can discern from the dry surrounding area. 

  • The main cylindrical part of the penis. 

  • Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool, one of the poles between which an animal is harnessed to a vehicle, the driveshaft of a motorized vehicle with rear-wheel drive, an axle, etc. 

  • The long narrow body of a lacrosse stick. 

verb
  • To fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery. 

  • To equip with a shaft. 

  • To fuck; to have sexual intercourse with. 

How often have the words pit and shaft occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )