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hit

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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See also: -hit, HIT, Hit, and hít
Languages (30)
Translingual • English
Alemannic German • Catalan • Chamorro • Chinese • Czech • Danish • Dutch • French • Hokkien • Hungarian • Jamaican Creole • Limburgish • Middle Dutch • Middle English • Norwegian Bokmål • Norwegian Nynorsk • Old Dutch • Old English • Old Frisian • Old Norse • Old Welsh • Polish • Portuguese • Romanian • Spanish • Swedish • Turkish • Volapük
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Translingual

Symbol

hit

  1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Hittite.

See also

English

 hit on Wikipedia

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”).

Cognates

Cognate with West Frisian hitte (“to meet”), Dutch hitten (“to hit, encounter”), Danish hitte (“to find”), Faroese, Icelandic, Swedish hitta (“to meet”), Norwegian Nynorsk hitta, hitte (“to meet; to find”), Latin caedō (“to kill”), Albanian qit (“to hit, throw, pull out, release”). Probably also related to Dutch hei (“mallet”), German Heie (“wooden hammer, mallet”).

Verb

Wikidata has a Lexeme related to:

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 (dialectal, obsolete) hat or (rare, dialectal) het or (archaic, rare, 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, 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.
    2. (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.
    3. (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?
    4. (transitive) To activate a button or key by pressing and releasing it.
      Hit the Enter key to continue.
    5. (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.
    6. (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.
    7. (figurative, ambitransitive) 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.
  2. (transitive) To manage to touch (a target) in the right place.
    Antonym: miss
    I hit the jackpot.
  3. (transitive, colloquial) To switch on or switch off (lights).
    Somebody's been here! Hit the lights!
  4. (transitive, music, informal) To commence playing.
    I'd love to hear your band play.
    Hit it boys!
  5. (transitive, colloquial) To briefly visit.
    We hit the grocery store on the way to the park.
  6. (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.
  7. (heading) To attain, to achieve.
    1. (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.
      • 2004, Intelligent Systems, translated by Nintendo of America, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Nintendo, GameCube, level/area: Rogueport:
        As soon as we hit Jazzafrazz Town, we were overcome by the glitz and the glamour.
      • 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.
    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.
  8. (transitive) To affect negatively.
    The economy was hit by a recession.  The hurricane hit his fishing business hard.
  9. (figuratively) To attack.
    • 2016 March 3, Nick Gass, quoting Donald Trump, “Trump on small hands: 'I guarantee you there's no problem'”, in Politico‎:
      I have to say this, he hit my hands. Nobody has ever hit my hands. I’ve never heard of this one. Look at those hands. Are they small hands?
  10. (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.
  11. (transitive, computing, programming) To use; to connect to.
    The external web servers hit DBSRV7, but the internal web server hits DBSRV3.
  12. (transitive, US, slang) To have sex with.
    I'd hit that!
  13. (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.
  14. (transitive, bodybuilding) (of an exercise) to affect, to work a body part.
    This is another great exercise which hits the long head.
  15. (transitive, bodybuilding) To work out.
    With that said, the group hitting their legs just once a week still made gains.
Synonyms
Antonyms
  • (antonym(s) of “manage to touch in the right place”): miss
Derived terms
Terms derived from hit (verb)
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun

Wikidata has a Lexeme related to:

hit (plural hits)

  1. A blow; a punch; a striking against; the collision of one body against another; the stroke that touches anything.
    The hit was very slight.
  3. Something very successful, such as a song, film, or video game, that receives widespread recognition and acclaim.
    • 1848, “Her Majesty's Theatre”, in The Musical World‎, volume 23:
      Marie Taglioni was another hit for Her Majesty's Theatre last season, and will be a hit again this season […]
    • 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.
  4. (figuratively) A blow; a calamitous or damaging occurrence.
    His reputation took a hit when the new information came to light.
  5. An attack on a location, person or people.
  6. 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.
    1. In the game of Battleship, a correct guess at where one's opponent ship is.
  7. (computing, Internet) A match found by searching a computer system or search engine
  8. (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.
  9. An approximately correct answer in a test set.
  10. (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.
  11. (colloquial) A dose of an illegal or addictive drug.
    Where am I going to get my next hit?
  12. 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.
  13. (dated) A peculiarly apt expression or turn of thought; a phrase which hits the mark.
    a happy hit
  14. (backgammon) A move that throws one of the opponent's men back to the entering point.
  15. (backgammon) A game won after the adversary has removed some of his men. It counts for less than a gammon.
Antonyms
  • (antonym(s) of “a punch”): miss
  • (antonym(s) of “success”): flop, turkey
Derived terms
Descendants
  • → Catalan: hit
  • → Czech: hit
  • → Danish: hit
  • → French: hit
  • → Dutch: hit
  • → Japanese: ヒット (hitto)
  • → Polish: hit
  • → Portuguese: hit
  • → Russian: хит (xit)
  • → Spanish: hit
  • → Swedish: hit
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective

hit (not comparable)

  1. 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)

  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

References

Anagrams

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Alemannic German

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

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

Catalan

Chamorro

Chinese

Czech

Danish

Dutch

French

Hokkien

Hungarian

Jamaican Creole

Limburgish

Middle Dutch

Middle English

Norwegian Bokmål

Norwegian Nynorsk

Old Dutch

Old English

Old Frisian

Old Norse

Old Welsh

Polish

Portuguese

Romanian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Volapük

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