cockpit
noun/ˈkɒkpɪt/
/ˈkɑːkpɪt/
- the area in a plane, boat or racing car where the pilot or driver sitsTopics Transport by waterc1, Transport by airc1Oxford Collocations DictionaryCockpit is used before these nouns:
- instrument
Word Originlate 16th cent. relating to a pit where cockfights are held: from cock + pit ‘a hole in the ground’. The current sense dates from the early 20th cent. and derives from an early 18th-cent. nautical term denoting an area in the aft lower deck of a man-of-war where the wounded were taken, later coming to mean ‘the “pit” or well from which a yacht is steered’; hence the place housing the controls of other vehicles.
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cockpit