The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 3 plus 4 letter word THE PITS
I've seen this crossword clue in The Times
T
H
E
P
I
T
S
More clues leading to the result THE PITS
- Where diggers work with spades — it's awful
- Birds going about in pants?
- Tango’s fashionable, and it’s awful
- Worst thing, this pet running wild
- Awful drivers may stop here
- Temperature cool — it’s horrible
- Worst place for the 25s
- Worst possible place to find crew
- Nether regions — where deodorant sprayed?
- Absolutely worst person possible is ridiculously pettish
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "awful" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case awful = the pits.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.