armpit

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   the hollow beneath the shoulder where the arm joins the body

   The nurse placed the thermometer in the patient's armpit.

2. 2
   noun

   informal: an extremely unpleasant, unattractive, or undesirable place

   Residents objected when the columnist called their town the armpit of the region.

A compound of arm and pit, recorded in Middle English as armpit and related forms. The anatomical image later produced the informal figurative sense of an unpleasant place, probably through association with sweat and body odor.

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