whirling pits

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English[edit]

Noun[edit]

the whirling pits pl (plural only)

  1. (slang) An unpleasant sensation of spinning after consuming alcohol or other drugs.
    • 1983, New Scientist, volume 100, number 1380, page 218:
      I note with interest Paul Dawson's query as to whether or not one's direction of rotation during the alcohol induced phenomenon known as "the whirling pits" depends upon the hemisphere in which one is situated (Letters, 1 September, p 643).
    • 2000, Alison Pressley, Changing Times: Being Young in Britain in the '60s, page 71:
      I ended up with the whirling pits, being sick in the bathroom for hours. It should have put me off booze forever […]
    • 2001, F. A. Casemore, Skylarks: For Myself, Lest I Forget, or Die Unsung, page 358:
      That hideously addictive, ruinous mix of tobacco and hash, the violently, wrenching, contrasting, simultaneous expansion and depression of the senses can be truly horrible, the whirling pits.

References[edit]

  • Tony Thorne (2014) “whirling pits”, in Dictionary of Contemporary Slang, 4th edition, London,  […]: Bloomsbury
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