cockpit

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The space in the fuselage of a small airplane containing seats for the pilot, copilot, and sometimes passengers.
• noun The space set apart for the pilot and crew, as in a helicopter, large airliner, or transport aircraft.
• noun The driver's compartment in a racing car.
• noun A pit or enclosed area for cockfights.
• noun A place where many battles have been fought.
• noun A compartment in an old warship below the water line, used as quarters for junior officers and as a station for the wounded during a battle.
• noun An area in a small decked vessel toward the stern, lower than the rest of the deck, from which the vessel is steered.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun A place which is or has been the scene of many contests or battles: as, an ecclesiastical cockpit; “Belgium, … the cockpit of Europe,”
• noun A pit or inclosed place used for cock-fighting.
• noun Formerly, an apartment under the lower gun-deck of a ship of war, forming quarters for junior officers, and during a battle devoted to the surgeon and his assistants and patients.
• noun A room in Westminster in which the English Privy Council hold their sittings: so called from its occupation of the site of the former cockpit of the palace at Whitehall.
• noun The pit or area of a theater.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun A pit, or inclosed area, for cockfights.
• noun The Privy Council room at Westminster; -- so called because built on the site of the cockpit of Whitehall palace.
• noun That part of a war vessel appropriated to the wounded during an engagement.
• noun In yachts and other small vessels, a space lower than the rest of the deck, which affords easy access to the cabin.
• noun In airplanes or boats, the space where the pilot or operator sits to control the vehicle. In airplanes it is usually in the front of the fuselage. In larger airplanes it may be closed off from the cabin, where the passengers travel.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The space for those in control of a nautical, aeronautical, or astronautical vessel.
• noun obsolete, nautical The compartment set aside for the care of wounded during naval engagements; the sickbay.
• noun nautical A well, usually near the stern, where the helm is located.
• noun An enclosure for cockfights.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun compartment where the pilot sits while flying the aircraft
• noun seat where the driver sits while driving a racing car
• noun a pit for cockfights