A bottomless pit is a large hole in the ground that has no bottom; it goes on forever. Nothing of the sort exists in nature. Instead, the concept comes from the Bible, where the bottomless pit, or abyss, is an unimaginably deep space where fallen angels or demons dwell.
The word abyss comes from the Ancient Greek ábussos meaning ‘bottomless, unfathomable, or boundless.’ Most English speakers are not thinking of the Bible when they use the term bottomless pit, however. Instead, they are using it figuratively, as a common idiom to describe something that seems to have no limits.
Meaning of ‘Bottomless Pit’
1. A very hungry person; a person who eats large amounts of food and never seems to be full; someone with an excessively large appetite.
2. Something that is an endless source of something, usually negative or troublesome; something that seems to be limitless.
The second meaning often refers to something that consumes a lot of money and never seems to stop costing more. This is also referred to as a money pit.
Sentence Examples
“My brother is a bottomless pit. He seems to eat nonstop.”
“My credit card debt is like a bottomless pit. I’ll never be able to pay it off.”
“My father kept putting money into his restaurant to keep it from going under. In the last five years the place was a bottomless pit.”
“He was a bottomless pit of sadness and despair.”
“It’s a bottomless pit of expenses! You got insurance, you got repairs, car payments…” One Night at McCool’s (2001)
“Mother says my stomach is a bottomless pit. My family’s too poor to feed me.” hi bi Part II: Jue zhan tian xia (2009)
“A man, who can’t love me physically, is a source of misery. A bottomless pit of suffering.” Romance (1999)
“You’re a drunk. A user. And you have used me, J.D. You’re a bottomless pit, man and you drag everybody who cares a damn about you into it.” Hill Street Blues (1981)
“I just need money. All right?” “All right, all right. You don’t think I’m a bottomless pit, do you?” Prime Suspect (1991)
Origin
The term bottomless pit was first seen in print in the late 1500s as part of the New Testament of the Christian Bible (1526), in the book of Revelations and Romans. It has been used as an idiom since the second half of the 1800s.