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bit

noun
/ˈbɪt/

Etymology

From Middle English bitte, bite, from Old English bita (“bit; fragment; morsel”) and bite (“a bite; cut”), from Proto-Germanic *bitô and *bitiz; both from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”). More at bite. Cognates Cognate with West Frisian bit, Saterland Frisian Bit, Dutch bit, German Low German Beet, Biet, German Biss and Bissen, Danish bid, Swedish bit, Icelandic biti.

  1. derived from *bʰeyd-✻ — “to split”
  2. inherited from *bitô✻
  3. inherited from bita — “bit; fragment; morsel”
  4. inherited from bitte

Definitions

  1. A piece of metal placed in a horse's mouth and connected to the reins to direct the…

    A piece of metal placed in a horse's mouth and connected to the reins to direct the animal.

    • A horse hates having a bit put in its mouth.

  2. A rotary cutting tool, fitted to a drill, brace, or router, used to bore or drill holes…

    A rotary cutting tool, fitted to a drill, brace, or router, used to bore or drill holes or to remove material from the profile of the workpiece.

    • router bit
    • chamfering bit

  3. Applied to a various small units of currency and coins.

    • a threepenny bit
  4. ›+ 27 more definitions

    1. A small amount of something.

      • There were bits of paper all over the floor.
      • Does your leg still hurt? —Just a bit now.
      • I've done my bit; I expect you to do yours.

    2. Specifically, a small amount of time.

      • I'll be there in a bit; I need to take care of something first.
      • He was here just a bit ago, but it looks like he's stepped out.

    3. A small fraction above a whole number.

      • The movie lasted for two and a bit hours.

    4. Fractions of a second.

      • The 400 metres race was won in 47 seconds and bits.

    5. A portion of something.

      • I'd like a big bit of cake, please.

    6. Somewhat

      Somewhat; something, but not very great; also used like jot and whit to express the smallest degree. See also a bit.

      • Am I bored? Not a bit of it!
      • My young companion was a bit of a poet.

    7. A replaceable tip for a hand tool or power tool, comprising the portion that drives a…

      A replaceable tip for a hand tool or power tool, comprising the portion that drives a fastener.

      • Near-synonym: driver
      • driver bit

    8. A prison sentence, especially a short one.

      • Had it not been for the influence of Mrs. Booth and Hope Hall I should still be grafting or doing a bit in some stir
      • Chino didn't make me think of Dachau or that notorious joint in Angola, Louisiana, where a brother who had done a bit there told me how they used to cut the grass on the front lawn with their fingernails.

    9. An excerpt of material making up part of a show, comedy routine, etc.

      • His bit about video games was not nearly as entertaining as the other segments of his show.

    10. A gag or put-on

      A gag or put-on; a humorous conceit, especially when insistently presented as true.

      • Are you serious, or is this a bit?
      • Also, I'm bi. I like dudes! ...That's weird to say. Everything I say feels like a bit now, god dammit.

    11. Ellipsis of bit part.

      • She acted her bit in the opening scene.

    12. The part of a key which enters the lock and acts upon the bolt and tumblers.

    13. The cutting iron of a plane.

    14. The bevelled front edge of an axehead along which the cutting edge runs.

    15. A gag of a style similar to a bridle.

    16. A gun.

      • Jimmy: I need to get my hands on some bits. If you’re still in the business. Ronnie (played by Nick Nevern): Oi! Trojan (played by Jean-Paul Van Cauwelaert): Ronnie. […] Trojan: Now that is a SIG Sauer P226.

    17. To put a bridle upon

      To put a bridle upon; to put the bit in the mouth of (a horse).

    18. simple past of bite

      • Your dog bit me!

    19. past participle of bite, bitten

      • I've been bit by your dog!

    20. Having been bitten.

      • Even though he's bit, of course the zombies would still chase him.
      • Fortunately, someone who gets skeeter-bit this much may develop an immunity to the skeeter's saliva
      • Only the year before, the conjure man had brought in the Jackson County madstone, from way over in Illinois, for a white peddler that had been dog-bit, and the man went ahead and died just the same

    21. A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.

    22. The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.

    23. Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values.

      • status bits on IRC
      • permission bits in a file system

    24. A unit of measure for information entropy.

    25. A microbitcoin, or a millionth of a bitcoin (0.000001 BTC).

    26. An Austroasiatic language spoken in China and Laos.

    27. Acronym of Behavioural Insights Team.

The neighborhood

Derived

a bit, a fair bit, a little bit, a little bit of bread and no cheese, a lot of bit, a wee bit, behind the bit, bergy bit, bit and bit, bit-banger, bit between one's teeth, bit-bucket, bit bucket, bit by bit, bit-faker, bitless, bit lifter, bitling, bit of all right, bit of alright, bit of crumpet, bit of fluff, bit of homework, bit of muslin, bit of rough, bit of skirt, bit of stuff, bit on the side, bit part, bit player, bit role, bits and bobs, bits and pieces, bit shank, bitstock, bittock, bitty, blind bit, blown to bits, brace and bit · +143 more

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for bit. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA