flea pit

See also: fleapit

English

Noun

flea pit (plural flea pits)

1. (colloquial) A dilapidated building, stereotypically hosting a low-grade cinema.
   • 1964, Dylan Thomas, The Doctor and the Devils:

     The Upland Cinema ("The Flea Pit") stood on the corner of The Grove, the street where he had been born.

   • 1970, Colm Luibhéid, All the Green Gold: an Irish boyhood:

     The Regal is no longer there, but, when I was eight, nine, and ten it was a flea pit down beside the harbor.

   • 1980, Mervyn Thompson, All My Lives:

     I remember going to the pictures at the local flea pit and seeing Riders of Death Valley, a serial in which I avidly #followed the fortunes of my hero Jim . . .

   • 2004, Keith Spratley, Provincial Eye: The Short Stories:

     The term flea pit was not justified as the cinema turned out to be clean and well maintained.

Anagrams

• lifetap