cockpit

noun10

1. •
   A well, usually near the stern, where the helm is located.
2. •
   The driver's compartment in a racing car (or, by extension, in a sports car or other automobile).
3. •
   The compartment in an aircraft or spacecraft in which the pilot sits and from where the craft is controlled.

   • Jump in the cockpit and start up the engines / Remove all the wheel blocks, there's no time to waste — 1984
4. •
   (figurative) An area from where something is controlled or managed; a centre of control.
5. •
   (figurative) A site of conflict; a battlefield.

   • India became the cockpit in which it was shown that trade was war carried on under another name. — 2016
6. •
   (historical) A pit or other enclosure for cockfighting.

   • A cockpit, which was still used for cock-fighting during the Napoleonic Wars, used to occupy the site of the vicarage. — 1980
7. •
   (historical) The area set aside for junior officers including the ship's surgeon on a man-of-war, where the wounded were treated; the sickbay.
8. •
   (vulgar) The vagina.
9. •
   A valley surrounded by steep forested slopes.
10. •
    (no longer used) A theater or other entertainment venue.

    • The Cockpit or Phoenix Theatre in Drury Lane stood in the parish of St. Giles'-in-the-Fields, on what is now Pitt-place—properly Cockpit-place or Alley. — 1643