armpit - Wiktionary, the free dictionary


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A woman's shaved armpit

From Middle English armpitt, arme-pitt, armput, equivalent to arm +‎ pit.

(something unpleasant): Presumably a reference to underarm body odor.

armpit (plural armpits)

  1. The cavity beneath the junction of the arm and shoulder.
    • 2009, Sarah Waters, The Little Stranger, Virago Press (2018), page 265:

      She stood a couple of feet away from me [] exposing an edge of brassière strap at her armpit―exposing the armpit itself, a muscular hollow shadowed with fine stubble and faintly streaked with talcum.

    • 2018 February 2, Owen Guo, “Aiming at China’s Armpits: When Foreign Brands Misfire”, in The New York Times[1]:

      Unilever brought its Rexona deodorant to China a decade ago, dreaming of a market with 2.6 billion armpits.

    Synonyms: underarm; axilla (anatomy); oxter (UK, dialectal), armhole (UK, dialectal)
    Coordinate term: poplit (knee pit)
  2. (colloquial, derogatory) Somewhere or something unpleasant or undesirable.
    Synonyms: butthole (vulgar), asshole (vulgar)

    the armpit of America

cavity beneath the junction of the arm and shoulder