Open English Wordnet
(n)pithouse, dugout, pit-house, dug-outa shelter for humans or domesticated animals and livestock based on a hole or depression dug into the ground; can be fully recessed into the earth, with a flat roof covered by ground, semi-recessed, with a constructed wood or sod roof standing out, or dug into a hillside.“Dugouts are one of the most ancient types of human housing known to archeologists, and the same methods have evolved into modern ‘earth shelter’ technology.”