Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Hit

Hit

,
p
ron.
It.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.

Hit

,
3d p
ers.
s
ing.
p
res.
of
Hide
, contracted from hideth.
[Obs.]
Chaucer.

Hit

,
Verb.
T.
[
imp. & p. p.
Hit
;
p. pr. & vb. n.
Hitting
.]
[OE.
hitten
,
hutten
, of Scand. origin; cf. Dan.
hitte
to hit, find, Sw. & Icel.
hitta
.]
1.
To reach with a stroke or blow; to strike or touch, usually with force; especially, to reach or touch (an object aimed at).
I think you have
hit
the mark.
Shakespeare
2.
To reach or attain exactly; to meet according to the occasion; to perform successfully; to attain to; to accord with; to be conformable to; to suit.
Birds learning tunes, and their endeavors to
hit
the notes right.
Locke.
There you
hit
him; . . . that argument never fails with him.
Dryden.
Whose saintly visage is too bright
To
hit
the sense of human sight.
Milton.
He scarcely
hit
my humor.
Tennyson.
3.
To guess; to light upon or discover.
“Thou hast hit it.”
Shak.
4.
(Backgammon)
To take up, or replace by a piece belonging to the opposing player; – said of a single unprotected piece on a point.
To hit off
,
to describe with quick characteristic strokes; as, to hit off a speaker.
Sir W. Temple.
To hit out
,
to perform by good luck.
[Obs.]
Spenser.

Hit

,
Verb.
I.
1.
To meet or come in contact; to strike; to clash; – followed by against or on.
If bodies be extension alone, how can they move and
hit
one against another?
Locke.
Corpuscles, meeting with or
hitting
on those bodies, become conjoined with them.
Woodward.
2.
To meet or reach what was aimed at or desired; to succeed, – often with implied chance, or luck.
And oft it
hits

Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.
Shakespeare
And millions miss for one that
hits
.
Swift.
To hit on
or
To hit upon
,
to light upon; to come to by chance; to discover unexpectedly;
as, he
hit on
the solution after days of trying
.
“None of them hit upon the art.”
Addison.

Hit

,
Noun.
1.
A striking against; the collision of one body against another; the stroke that touches anything.
So he the famed Cilician fencer praised,
And, at each
hit
, with wonder seems amazed.
Dryden.
3.
A peculiarly apt expression or turn of thought; a phrase which hits the mark;
as, a happy
hit
.
4.
A game won at backgammon after the adversary has removed some of his men. It counts less than a
gammon
.
5.
(Baseball)
A striking of the ball;
as, a safe
hit
; a foul
hit
; – sometimes used specifically for a
base hit
.

Webster 1828 Edition


Hit

HIT

,
Verb.
T.
pret. and pp. hit.
1.
To strike or touch, either with or without force. We hit a thing with the finger, or with the head; a cannon ball hits a mast, or a wall.
2.
To strike or touch, either with or without force. We hit a thing with the finger, or with the head; a cannon ball hits a mast, or a wall.
The archers hit him. 1 Sam.31.
3.
To reach; to attain to.
Birds learning tunes, and their endeavors to hit the notes right--
4.
To suit; to be conformable.
--Melancholy,
Whose saintly visage is too bright
To hit the sense of human sight.
5.
To strike; to touch properly; to offer the right bait.
There you hit him--that argument never fails with him.
To hit off, to strike out; to determine luckily.
1.
To represent or describe exactly.
To hit out, to perform by good luck. [Little used.]

HIT

,
Verb.
I.
To strike; to meet or come in contact; to clash; followed by against or on.
If bodies be mere extension, how can they move and hit one against another.
Corpuscles meeting with or hitting on those bodies, become conjoined with them.
1.
To meet or fall on by good luck; to succeed by accident; not to miss.
And oft it hits
Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits.
2.
To strike or reach the intended point; to succeed.
And millions miss for one that hits.
To hit on or upon, to light on; to come to or fall on by chance; to meet or find, as by accident.
None of them hit upon the art.

HIT

,
Noun.
A striking against; the collision of one body against another; the stroke or blow that touches any thing.
So he the famed Cilician fencer prais'd,
And at each hit with wonder seems amaz'd.
1.
A chance; a casual event; as a lucky hit.
2.
A lucky chance; a fortunate event.
3.
A term in back-gammon. Three hits are equal to a gammon.

HIT

, v.i.
1.
To move by jerks, or with stops; as, in colloquial language, to hitch along.
Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time
Slides in a verse, or hitches in a rhyme.
2.
To become entangled; to be caught or hooked.
3.
To hit the legs together in going, as horses. [Not used in the U. States.]
4.
To hop; to spring on one leg. [Local.]
5.
To move or walk.

Definition 2024


Hit

Hit

See also: hit, HIT, hít, and -hit

German

Noun

Hit m (genitive Hits, plural Hits)

  1. hit (A success, especially in the entertainment industry.)
  2. (slang) hit (A dose of an illegal or addictive drug.)
  3. (computing, Internet) hit

Declension

Synonyms

Derived terms

  • Hitliste
  • Hitparade
  • hitverdächtig

External links

  • Hit in Duden online

hit

hit

See also: Hit, HIT, hít, and -hit

English

Verb

hit (third-person singular simple present hits, present participle hitting, simple past hit or (dialectal) hat or (rare, dialectal) het, past participle hit or (dialectal) hitten)

  1. (heading, physical) To strike.
    1. (transitive) To administer a blow to, directly or with a weapon or missile.
      One boy hit the other.
      • 1879, Richard Jefferies, The Amateur Poacher, chapterII:
        Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.
      • 1922-1927, Frank Harris, My Life and Loves
        He tried to hit me but I dodged the blow and went out to plot revenge.
      • 1922, James Joyce, Ulysses Episode 15:
        BELLO: (Shouts) Good, by the rumping jumping general! That's the best bit of news I heard these six weeks. Here, don't keep me waiting, damn you! (He slaps her face)
        BLOOM: (Whimpers) You're after hitting me. I'll tell []
      • 1934, Robert E. Howard, The Slugger's Game
        I hunted him for half a hour, aiming to learn him to hit a man with a table-leg and then run, but I didn't find him.
    2. (transitive) To come into contact with forcefully and suddenly.
      The ball hit the fence.
      • John Locke (1632-1705)
        If bodies be extension alone, how can they move and hit one against another?
      • 1726, Jonathan Swift, Gulliver's Travels, Part II, Chapter V
        a dozen apples, each of them near as large as a Bristol barrel, came tumbling about my ears; one of them hit me on the back as I chanced to stoop, and knocked me down flat on my face.
      • 1882, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Doctor Grimshawe's Secret: A romance
        Meanwhile the street boys kept up a shower of mud balls, many of which hit the Doctor, while the rest were distributed upon his assailants.
    3. (transitive, slang) To kill a person, usually on the instructions of a third party.
      Hit him tonight and throw the body in the river.
    4. (transitive, military) To attack, especially amphibiously.
      If intelligence had been what it should have been, I don't think we'd ever have hit that island.
  2. (transitive, colloquial) To briefly visit.
    We hit the grocery store on the way to the park.
  3. (transitive, informal) To encounter an obstacle or other difficulty.
    You'll hit some nasty thunderstorms if you descend too late. We hit a lot of traffic coming back from the movies.
  4. (heading) To attain, to achieve.
    1. (transitive, informal) To reach or achieve.
      I hit the jackpot. The movie hits theaters in December. The temperature could hit 110°F tomorrow. We hit Detroit at one in the morning but kept driving through the night.
      • 2012, August 1. Owen Gibson in Guardian Unlimited, London 2012: rowers Glover and Stanning win Team GB's first gold medal:
        And her success with Glover, a product of the National Lottery-funded Sporting Giants talent identification programme, will also spark relief among British officials who were starting to fret a little about hitting their target of equalling fourth in the medal table from Beijing.
    2. (intransitive) To meet or reach what was aimed at or desired; to succeed, often by luck.
    3. To guess; to light upon or discover.
  5. (transitive) To affect negatively.
    The economy was hit by a recession. The hurricane hit his fishing business hard.
  6. (heading, games) To make a play.
    1. (transitive, card games) In blackjack, to deal a card to.
      Hit me.
    2. (intransitive, baseball) To come up to bat.
      Jones hit for the pitcher.
    3. (backgammon) To take up, or replace by a piece belonging to the opposing player; said of a single unprotected piece on a point.
  7. (transitive, computing, programming) To use; to connect to.
    The external web servers hit DBSRV7, but the internal web server hits DBSRV3.
  8. (transitive, US, slang) To have sex with.
    I'd hit that.
  9. (transitive, US, slang) To inhale an amount of smoke from a narcotic substance, particularly marijuana
    I hit that bong every night after work
Antonyms
  • (manage to touch in the right place): miss
Derived terms
Translations

Noun

hit (plural hits)

  1. A blow; a punch; a striking against; the collision of one body against another; the stroke that touches anything.
    • Dryden
      So he the famed Cilician fencer praised, / And, at each hit, with wonder seems amazed.
    The hit was very slight.
  2. A success, especially in the entertainment industry.
    The band played their hit song to the delight of the fans.
    • Alexander Pope
      What late he called a blessing, now was wit, / And God's good providence, a lucky hit.
    • 2012 February 9, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Review: Chico & Rita”, in (Please provide the title of the work):
      Chico & Rita opens in the modern era, as an aged, weary Chico shines shoes in his native Cuba. Then a song heard on the radio—a hit he wrote and recorded with Rita in their youth—carries him back to 1948 Havana, where they first met.
  3. An attack on a location, person or people.
    1. In the game of Battleship, a correct guess at where one's opponent ship is.
  4. (computing, Internet) The result of a search of a computer system or of a search engine
  5. (Internet) A measured visit to a web site, a request for a single file from a web server.
    My site received twice as many hits after being listed in a search engine.
  6. An approximately correct answer in a test set.
  7. (baseball) The complete play, when the batter reaches base without the benefit of a walk, error, or fielder’s choice.
    The catcher got a hit to lead off the fifth.
  8. (colloquial) A dose of an illegal or addictive drug.
    Where am I going to get my next hit?
  9. A premeditated murder done for criminal or political purposes.
  10. (dated) A peculiarly apt expression or turn of thought; a phrase which hits the mark.
    a happy hit
  11. A game won at backgammon after the adversary has removed some of his men. It counts for less than a gammon.
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English hit (it), from Old English hit (it), from Proto-Germanic *hit (this, this one), from Proto-Indo-European *k'e-, *k'ey- (this, here). Cognate with Dutch het (it). More at it. Note 'it.

Pronoun

hit (subjective and objective hit, reflexive and intensive hitself, possessive adjective and noun hits)

  1. (dialectal) It.
    • 1922, Philip Gengembre Hubert, The Atlantic monthly, Volume 130:
      But how hit was to come about didn't appear.
    • 1998, Nancy A. Walker, What's so funny?: humor in American culture:
      Now, George, grease it good, an' let hit slide down the hill hits own way.
Derived terms

Anagrams


Alemannic German

Etymology

From Old High German hiutu, hiu + tagu, calque of Latin hodie. Cognate with German heute, Dutch heden.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɪt/

Adverb

hit

  1. (Alsatian) today
    Hit isch dr Jean-Pierre so drüri. — Jean-Pierre is so sad today.

Czech

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɪt/

Noun

hit m

  1. hit (a success, especially in the entertainment industry)

Synonyms


Hungarian

Etymology

From hisz (to believe).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ˈhit]

Noun

hit (plural hitek)

  1. faith, belief

Declension

Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)
singular plural
nominative hit hitek
accusative hitet hiteket
dative hitnek hiteknek
instrumental hittel hitekkel
causal-final hitért hitekért
translative hitté hitekké
terminative hitig hitekig
essive-formal hitként hitekként
essive-modal
inessive hitben hitekben
superessive hiten hiteken
adessive hitnél hiteknél
illative hitbe hitekbe
sublative hitre hitekre
allative hithez hitekhez
elative hitből hitekből
delative hitről hitekről
ablative hittől hitektől
Possessive forms of hit
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. hitem hiteim
2nd person sing. hited hiteid
3rd person sing. hite hitei
1st person plural hitünk hiteink
2nd person plural hitetek hiteitek
3rd person plural hitük hiteik

Derived terms


Limburgish

Etymology

From Dutch, from English hit.

Noun

hit f

  1. (slang, Dutch) something popular (book, song, band, country)

Usage notes

Slang. Mainly used when speaking Dutch, rather than in real Limburgish. Overall speaking, Limburgish is more conservative, so slaag is more often used.

Inflection

Inflection
Root singular Root plural Diminutive singular Diminutive plural
Nominative hit hits hitje hitjes
Genitive hit hits hitjes hitjes
Locative hittes hitteser hitteske hitteskes
Dative¹²
Accusative¹²
  • Dative and accusative are nowadays obsolete, use nominative instead.
  • The dative got out of use around 1900. As this is a recent loanword, there is no conjugation for it to be found.

Middle Dutch

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɪt/

Pronoun

hit

  1. Alternative form of het

Middle English

Pronoun

hit

  1. it

Norwegian Bokmål

Adverb

hit

  1. here (to this place)
    Kom hit! - Come here!

References


Norwegian Nynorsk

Adverb

hit

  1. here (to this place)
    Kom hit! - Come here!

References


Old Dutch

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hit.

Pronoun

hit

  1. it

Descendants


Old English

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hit (this, this one), from Proto-Indo-European *k'e-, *k'ey- (this, here). Cognate with Old Frisian hit (it), Old High German iz (it), Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐍄𐌰 (hita, it). More at .

Pronoun

hit n (accusative hit, genitive his, dative him)

  1. it

Descendants


Polish

Etymology

From English hit.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /xit̪/

Noun

hit m inan

  1. hit (a success, especially in the entertainment industry)

Declension


Portuguese

Noun

hit m (plural hits)

  1. hit (success, especially in the entertainment industry)

Synonyms


Spanish

Etymology

English

Noun

hit m (plural hits)

  1. hit (success)

Swedish

Etymology 1

From English hit.

Noun

hit c

  1. (informal) hit; something very popular. (A book, a movie, a song, ...)

Etymology 2

From Old Swedish hit, from *+at.

Composed in a similar way: Icelandic hegat and hingað.

Pronunciation

Adverb

hit (not comparable)

  1. here; to this place, hither
    Jag kom hit igår
    I came here yesterday
Antonyms
Related terms
See also