hit
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Remove ads
Languages (30)
Translingual • English
Alemannic German • Catalan • Chamorro • Chinese • Czech • Danish • Dutch • French • Hokkien • Hungarian • Jamaican Creole • Lashi • Limburgish • Middle Dutch • Middle English • Norwegian Bokmål • Norwegian Nynorsk • Old Dutch • Old English • Old Norse • Old Welsh • Polish • Portuguese • Romanian • Spanish • Swedish • Turkish • Volapük
Page categories
Alemannic German • Catalan • Chamorro • Chinese • Czech • Danish • Dutch • French • Hokkien • Hungarian • Jamaican Creole • Lashi • Limburgish • Middle Dutch • Middle English • Norwegian Bokmål • Norwegian Nynorsk • Old Dutch • Old English • Old Norse • Old Welsh • Polish • Portuguese • Romanian • Spanish • Swedish • Turkish • Volapük
Page categories
Remove ads
Symbol
hit
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle English hitten (“to hit, strike, make contact with”), from Old English hittan (“to meet with, come upon, fall in with”), from Old Norse hitta (“to strike, meet”), from Proto-Germanic *hittijaną (“to come upon, find”), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eyd- (“to fall; fall upon; hit; cut; hew”).
Cognate with Icelandic hitta (“to meet”), Danish hitte (“to find”), Latin caedō (“to kill”), Albanian qit (“to hit, throw, pull out, release”).
Verb
hit (third-person singular simple present hits, present participle hitting, simple past hit or (dialectal, obsolete) hat or (rare, dialectal) het, past participle hit or (archaic, rare, dialectal) hitten)
- (heading, physical) To strike.
- (transitive) To administer a blow to, directly or with a weapon or missile.
- One boy hit the other.
- 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
- 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 February, James Joyce, “[[Episode 15]]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:
- 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)
Bello: (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.
- (transitive) To come into contact with forcefully and suddenly.
- The ball hit the fence.
- 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: […] Benj[amin] Motte, […], →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag):
- 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.
- (intransitive) To strike against something.
- a. 1705, John Locke, “An Examination of P[ère] Malebranche’s Opinion of Seeing All Things in God”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, →OCLC:
- If bodies be extension alone, […] how can they move and hit one against another?
- (transitive) To activate a button or key by pressing and releasing it.
- Hit the Enter key to continue.
- (transitive, slang) To kill a person, usually on the instructions of a third party.
- Hit him tonight and throw the body in the river.
- 1973, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II (screenplay, second draft)
- FREDO: Mikey, why would they ever hit poor old Frankie Five-Angels? I loved that ole sonuvabitch.
- (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.
- (figurative, transitive, intransitive) To affect someone, as if dealing a blow to that person.
- Their coffee really hits the spot.
- I used to listen to that song all the time, but it hits different(ly) now.
- (transitive) To administer a blow to, directly or with a weapon or missile.
- (transitive) To manage to touch (a target) in the right place.
- I hit the jackpot.
- Antonym: miss
- (transitive, colloquial) To switch on.
- (transitive, music, informal) To commence playing.
- I'd love to hear your band play.
Hit it boys!
- (transitive, colloquial) To briefly visit.
- We hit the grocery store on the way to the park.
- (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.
- (heading) To attain, to achieve.
- (transitive, informal) To reach or achieve.
- 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, “London 2012: rowers Glover and Stanning win Team GB's first gold medal”, in Guardian Unlimited:
- 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.
- (intransitive) To meet or reach what was aimed at or desired; to succeed, often by luck.
- c. 1604–1605 (date written), William Shakespeare, “All’s Well, that Ends Well”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- And oft it hits / Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.
- 1733, [Jonathan Swift], On Poetry: A Rapsody, Dublin, London: […] [R. Fleming] [a]nd sold by J. Huggonson, […], →OCLC, page 3, lines 1–2:
- All Human Race wou’d fain be Wits, / And Millions miſs, for one that hits.
- To guess; to light upon or discover.
- c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
- Thou hast hit it.
- 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XLVI, page 69:
- And we shall sit at endless feast,
Enjoying each the other’s good;
What vaster dream can hit the mood
Of Love on earth?
- (transitive, informal) To reach or achieve.
- (transitive) To affect negatively.
- The economy was hit by a recession. The hurricane hit his fishing business hard.
- (figuratively) To attack.
- (heading, games) To make a play.
- (transitive, card games) In blackjack, to deal a card to.
- Hit me.
- (intransitive, baseball) To come up to bat.
- Jones hit for the pitcher.
- (backgammon) To take up, or replace by a piece belonging to the opposing player; said of a single unprotected piece on a point.
- (transitive, card games) In blackjack, to deal a card to.
- (transitive, computing, programming) To use; to connect to.
- The external web servers hit DBSRV7, but the internal web server hits DBSRV3.
- (transitive, US, slang) To have sex with.
- I'd hit that!
- (transitive, US, slang) To inhale an amount of smoke from a narcotic substance, particularly marijuana.
- 2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG:
- Tastes like fruit when you hit it; got to have bread to get it.
- (transitive, bodybuilding) (of an exercise) to affect, to work a body part.
- This is another great exercise which hits the long head.
- (transitive, bodybuilding) to work out
- With that said, the group hitting their legs just once a week still made gains.
Synonyms
- (administer a blow): beat, pelt, thump; see also Thesaurus:hit
- (kill a person): bump off, do away with, whack; see also Thesaurus:kill
- (attack): beset, fall upon, lay into; see also Thesaurus:attack
- (have sex with): bang, ram, smash; see also Thesaurus:copulate with
- (smoke marijuana): smoke up, toke
- (work out): hit the gym
Antonyms
- (antonym(s) of “manage to touch in the right place”): miss
Derived terms
Terms derived from hit (verb)
- a hit dog will holler
- don't let the door hit you on the way out
- flood-hit (adjective)
- hard-hitting
- hit above one's weight
- hit a brick wall
- hit a home run
- hit a lick
- hit and hope
- hit-and-miss
- hit and run
- hit a nerve
- hit a raw nerve
- hit a six
- hit a snag
- hit a stain
- hit at
- hit a wall
- hit away
- hit back
- hit below one's weight
- hit different
- hit hard
- hit home
- hit into the long grass
- hit it
- hit it and quit it
- hit it big
- hit it for six
- hit it off
- hit it out of the park
- hit it up
- hit licks
- hit like a ton of bricks
- hit like a truck
- hitman
- hit me
- hit off
- hit off the line
- hit on
- hit on all cylinders
- hit on all six
- hit one hard
- hit one out of the ballpark
- hit one out of the ball park
- hit one's marks
- hit one's straps
- hit one's stride
- hit out
- hit out of the park
- hit pause
- hit pay dirt
- hit paydirt
- hit rock bottom
- hit-run
- hit-skip
- hit someone for six
- hit someone when they are down
- hittable
- hittee
- hitter
- hit the accelerator
- hit the ball twice
- hit the big time
- hit the board
- hit the books
- hit the bottle
- hit the bricks
- hit the buffers
- hit the button
- hit the ceiling
- hit the deck
- hit the dirt
- hit the fan
- hit the gas
- hit the ground running
- hit the gym
- hit the hay
- hit the head
- hit the headlines
- hit the high notes
- hit the jackpot
- hit the mark
- hit them licks
- hit the nail on the head
- hit the net
- hit the pan
- hit the pavement
- hit the rack
- hit the road
- hit the rock
- hit the rocks
- hit the roof
- hit the sack
- hit the sauce
- hit the sheets
- hit the shelves
- hit the shops
- hit the shower
- hit the showers
- hit the silk
- hit the skids
- hit the spot
- hit the stores
- hit the streets
- hit the trail
- hit the wall
- hitting
- hitting partner
- hitting time
- hit too close to home
- hit two birds with one shot
- hit two targets with one arrow
- hit up
- hit up against
- hit upon
- hit wicket
- hit with
- hit with the stupid stick
- it's the hit dog that howls
- let the door hit you where the good Lord split you
- look like a bomb has hit it
- mis-hit
- mishit
- not be able to hit the broad side of a barn
- not hit a cow's arse with a banjo
- not know what hit one
- one-hit
- outhit
- overhit
- pinch-hit
- switch-hitting
- the fat hit the fire
- the rubber hits the road
- the tackies hit the tar
- they hit the Pentagon
- underhit
- unhit
- who-hit-John
Translations
to administer a blow — see also strike
|
to come into contact with forcefully and suddenly
|
to attack, chiefly amphibiously
to manage to touch in the right place
|
to kill a person on the instructions of a third party
to briefly visit
to come up to bat
to begin
|
to use
|
to affect negatively
to have sex with
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Noun
hit (plural hits)
- A blow; a punch; a striking against; the collision of one body against another; the stroke that touches anything.
- 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Fourth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
- So he the fam'd Cilician fencer prais'd, / And, at each hit, with wonder seem'd amaz'd.
- The hit was very slight.
- Something very successful, such as a song, film, or video game, that receives widespread recognition and acclaim.
- 2012 February 9, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Review: Chico & Rita”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
- 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.
- (figuratively) A blow; a calamitous or damaging occurrence.
- His reputation took a hit when the new information came to light.
- An attack on a location, person or people.
- A collision of a projectile with the target.
- 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:
- But signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.
- In the game of Battleship, a correct guess at where one's opponent ship is.
- (computing, Internet) A match found by searching a computer system or search engine
- (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.
- An approximately correct answer in a test set.
- (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.
- (colloquial) A dose of an illegal or addictive drug.
- Where am I going to get my next hit?
- A premeditated murder done for criminal or political purposes.
- 2023 August 30, Megan K. Stack, Rob Stothard, “He Was Shot 14 Times at the Dinner Table. His Children Want to Know if Britain Ordered the Hit.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
- The questions that have always haunted the family — who ordered the hit, and why, and who in London might have known — remain unanswered.
- (dated) A peculiarly apt expression or turn of thought; a phrase which hits the mark.
- a happy hit
- 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], (please specify |epistle=I to IV), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC:
- What late he called a blessing, now was wit, / And God's good providence, a lucky hit.
- (backgammon) A move that throws one of the opponent's men back to the entering point.
- (backgammon) A game won after the adversary has removed some of his men. It counts for less than a gammon.
Antonyms
Derived terms
- banjo hit
- base hit
- bong hit
- classic hit
- critical hit
- cult hit
- direct hit
- extra base hit
- first hit time
- gallery hit
- hard hit
- hit and giggle
- hitbox
- hit-by-pitch
- hit counter
- hitjob
- hitless
- hit list
- hitmaker
- hitmaking
- hit man
- hitmarker
- hit-out
- hit parade
- hitperson
- hit piece
- hit point
- hitscan
- hit squad
- hit test
- hit-up
- hitwoman
- infield hit
- king-hit
- king hit
- megahit
- mishit
- multihit
- nervous hit
- no hit
- no-hit wonder
- nonhit
- one-hit kill
- one-hit wonder
- orchestra hit
- pinch hit
- sacrifice hit
- safe hit
- scratch hit
- sleeper hit
- smash hit
- straight hit
- superhit
- switch hit
- take a hit
- turntable hit
- two-hit wonder
Descendants
Translations
blow, punch
|
success, especially in the entertainment industry
|
attack on a location
collision of a projectile with the target
|
computing, Internet: positive result of a search
|
Internet: measured visit to a web site
(baseball) complete play, when the batter reaches base
|
dose of an illegal or addictive drug
murder for criminal or political purposes
|
peculiarly apt expression or turn of thought
|
backgammon: move that throws one of the opponent's men back to the entering point
backgammon: game won after the adversary has removed some of his men
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Adjective
hit (not comparable)
- Very successful.
- The band played their hit song to the delight of the fans.
Etymology 2
From Middle English hit (“it”), from Old English hit (“it”), from Proto-Germanic *hit (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this, here”). Cognate with Dutch het (“it”). More at it; also note 'it.
Pronoun
hit (subjective and objective hit, reflexive and intensive hitself, possessive adjective and noun hits)
- (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
References
- “hit”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
- “hit”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
Anagrams
Remove ads
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Old High German hiutu, from hiu + tagu, a calque of Latin hodie. Cognate with German heute, Dutch heden.
Pronunciation
Adverb
hit
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
Remove ads