bit - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

Clipping of English Bitara.

bit

1. (international standards) ISO 639-3 language code for Berinomo.

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.

bit (plural bits)

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

   Synonyms: kimberwicke, pelham, snaffle

   A horse hates having a bit put in its mouth.

4. 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.

   Hyponyms: drill bit, drillbit

   router bit;   chamfering bit

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

   Synonyms: coin, piece

   1. (dated, British) A coin of a specified value.

      a threepenny bit

   3. (historical, US and Canada) A unit of currency worth one eighth of a dollar, originally of a Spanish dollar but later also US or Canadian; also, a coin with this value, in particular the silver Spanish real.

      A quarter is two bits.

   4. (obsolete, US and Canada) A coin of a value similar but not equal to this, in particular the ‘short bit’, i.e. the ten-cent piece or dime.
      • 1941, Emily Carr, chapter 10, in Klee Wyck‎^[4]:

        The smallest coin we had in Canada in early days was a dime, worth ten cents. The Indians called this coin “a Bit”. Our next coin, double in buying power and in size, was a twenty-five cent piece and this the Indians called “Two Bits”.

   5. (historical) A unit of currency and coin of the British West Indies worth six black dogs, originally equal to one-eighth of a Spanish dollar but later increasingly debased to one tenth, one eleventh, one twelfth, etc.
      • 1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 6, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I:

        I trusted to the Lord to be with me; and at one of our trips to St. Eustatia, a Dutch island, I bought a glass tumbler with my half bit, and when I came to Montserrat I sold it for a bit, or sixpence.

   6. (historical) A unit of currency of the Dutch West Indies in the early 20th century, worth one fifth of a cent.
   7. Synonym of microbitcoin.
6. A small amount of something.

   Synonyms: (of food) morsel, piece, scrap; see also Thesaurus:modicum

   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.

   • 2026 March 18, Chris Conway talks to Andy Comfort, “The RAIL Interview”, in RAIL, page 32:

     "I suppose my first objective was to try and help a department, which was very much civil servants who are rotating around on a regular basis, to try and understand public transport a wee bit better and try and understand what was required to run a bus and rail network," muses Conway.

7. (informal) Specifically, a small amount of time.

   Synonyms: instant, jiffy, tick; see also Thesaurus:moment

   Antonyms: age, (US) while; see also Thesaurus:eon

   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.

8. (informal) A small fraction above a whole number.

   The movie lasted for two and a bit hours.

9. (in the plural, informal, sports) Fractions of a second.

   Synonym: split-second

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

10. A portion of something.

    Synonyms: portion, share, segment; see also Thesaurus:piece

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

    • 2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist:

      Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus. […] A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.

11. 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!

    • 1835, Theodore Hook, Gilbert Gurney:

      My young companion was a bit of a poet.

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

    Near-synonym: driver

    driver bit

15. (slang) A prison sentence, especially a short one.

    Synonym: bid

    • 1904, The Anamosa prison press, volume 7, Iowa. Colony of Detention at Anamosa:

      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

    • 1916, Thomas Mott Osborne. Warden, Sing Sing Prison, N. Y., “Prison Reform”, in The Journal of sociologic medicine, volume 17, page 407:

      Before doing that I am going to tell you what was the result of my own incarceration, because I presume it may not be a secret to you, that I have done a "bit" myself, not the "bit" which the prosecuting attorney was so anxious to have me do.

    • 1994, Odie Hawkins, Lost Angeles, page 158:

      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.

    • 2001, Andrew H. Vachss, Pain management:

      Not counting the days—that's okay for a county-time slap, but it'll make you crazy if you've got years to go on a felony bit.

16. 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.

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

    Synonyms: shaggy dog story, wind up; see also Thesaurus:joke

    Are you serious, or is this a bit?

    • 2024 March 1, F1NN5TER, 3:36 from the start, in Coming Out‎^[5], archived from the original on 14 May 2024:

      Also, I'm bi. I like dudes! ...That's weird to say. Everything I say feels like a bit now, god dammit.

18. Ellipsis of bit part.

    She acted her bit in the opening scene.

20. The part of a key which enters the lock and acts upon the bolt and tumblers.^[1]
21. The cutting iron of a plane.^[2]
22. The bevelled front edge of an axehead along which the cutting edge runs.
23. (BDSM) A gag of a style similar to a bridle.
24. (MLE) A gun.

    Synonyms: (MLE) skeng, toy, wap; see also Thesaurus:firearm

    • 2013 December 23, Stephen Reynolds, 46:53 from the start, in Stephen Reynolds, director, Vendetta (film), spoken by Jimmy Vickers (Danny Dyer):

      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.

bit (third-person singular simple present bits, present participle bitting, simple past and past participle bitted)

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

See bite. Replaced a former strong past tense, seen in Middle English bot and Old English bāt.

bit

1. simple past of bite

   Your dog bit me!

2. (informal in US, archaic in UK) past participle of bite, bitten

   I've been bit by your dog!

bit (not comparable)

1. (chiefly in combination) Having been bitten.

   Even though he's bit, of course the zombies would still chase him.

   • 1984 July, Field & Stream, volume 89, number 3, page 24:

     Fortunately, someone who gets skeeter-bit this much may develop an immunity to the skeeter's saliva

   • 1992, Robert Lewis Taylor, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters‎^[6]:

     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

   • 1998, Adele Griffin, Rainy Season‎^[7], page 121:

     He will not — he'll tell you not to be loco, climbing up trees late at night when you'll get bug-bit to death plus you can't see anything

Coined by John Tukey in 1946 as an abbreviation of binary digit, probably influenced by connotations of “small portion”.^[1][2] First used in print 1948 by Claude Shannon.^[3] Compare byte and nybble, with similar food associations.

bit (plural bits)

2. (mathematics, computing) A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.
4. (computing) The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.

   Synonym: b

6. (information theory, cryptography) Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values.

   status bits on IRC

   permission bits in a file system

7. (information theory) A unit of measure for information entropy.
   • 2011 May 17, Lisa Grossman, “Entropy Is Universal Rule of Language”, in Wired Science‎^[8], retrieved 26 September 2012:

     The researchers found that the original texts spanned a variety of entropy values in different languages, reflecting differences in grammar and structure.
     But strangely, the difference in entropy between the original, ordered text and the randomly scrambled text was constant across languages. This difference is a way to measure the amount of information encoded in word order, Montemurro says. The amount of information lost when they scrambled the text was about 3.5 bits per word.

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

From Proto-Turkic *bït (“louse”).

bit (definite accusative biti, plural bitlər)

1. louse

bit m (plural bits)

1. (computing) bit

Borrowed from English bit, from binary digit.

bit m inan

1. (computing) bit

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

bit

1. masculine singular passive participle of bít

Ablaut of bijten.

bit n (plural bitten, diminutive bitje n)

1. bit (for a working animal)
2. bit (rotary cutting tool)
3. mouthguard

From English bit.

bit m (plural bits, diminutive bitje n)

1. bit (binary digit)
2. bit (unit of storage)
3. bit (datum with two possible values)

From English.

bit m (plural bits)

1. (computing) bit

From English bit.^[1]

• IPA^(key): [ˈbit]
• Hyphenation: bit
• Rhymes: -it

bit (plural bitek)

1. (computing) bit (binary digit)

• bit in Nóra Ittzés, editor, A magyar nyelv nagyszótára [A Comprehensive Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (Nszt.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 2006–2031 (work in progress; published a–ez as of 2024).

Borrowed from English bit (“binary digit”).

bit (plural bit-bit)

1. (computing) bit, smallest unit of storage

Borrowed from Dutch biet, from Middle Dutch bete, from Latin bēta.

bit (plural bit-bit)

1. common beet, beetroot, sugar beet, and chard (Beta vulgaris)

   buah bit ― beetroot

Borrowed from English bit, 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”).

bit (plural bit-bit)

1. bit
   1. an excerpt of material making up part of a show, comedy routine, etc.
   2. a gag or put-on; a humorous conceit, especially when insistently presented as true

Borrowed from English bit, from binary digit.

bit m (invariable)

1. (computing) bit, smallest unit of storage.

From Sudanese Arabic بت (bitt), from Arabic بِنْت (bint).

bit (plural banaat)

1. daughter
2. girl

• Ian Smith; Morris Timothy Ama (1985), A Dictionary of Juba Arabic & English‎^[9], 1st edition, Juba: The Committee of The Juba Cheshire Home and Centre for Handicapped Children, page 127

From Proto-Turkic *bït.

bit

1. louse

• N. A. Baskakov, S.M. Šapšala, editor (1973), “bit”, in Karaimsko-Russko-Polʹskij Slovarʹ [Karaim-Russian-Polish Dictionary], Moscow: Moskva, →ISBN

From Proto-Turkic *bït (“louse”).

• IPA^(key): [bɪt], [bi(ˑ)t], [biːt]
• (Xarrâbî) IPA^(key): [bɪt], [bit]

bit (definite accusative bitü, plural bitlər)

1. louse

• Doerfer, Gerhard (1980), Wörterbuch des Chaladsch (Dialekt von Charrab) [Khalaj dictionary] (in German), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó
• Doerfer, Gerhard (1988), Grammatik des Chaladsch [Grammar of Khalaj] (in German), Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, →ISBN, →OCLC

bit

1. supine of biś

bit

1. alternative form of bite

bit

1. alternative form of bitte

bit

1. third-person singular imperative of bot
2. alternative form of byð (third-person singular consuetudinal present/future)

From English beat.

bit

1. beat

From Old Frisian bīta.

bit

1. (Sylt) to bite

From Old Norse biti.

bit m (definite singular biten, indefinite plural biter, definite plural bitene)

1. a bit, piece (of something)
2. a bite, mouthful (of food)

From English bit (“binary digit”).

bit m (definite singular biten, indefinite plural bit or biter, definite plural bitene)

1. a bit (binary digit)

• “bit” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse.

bit m (definite singular biten, indefinite plural bitar, definite plural bitane)

1. a bit, piece (of something)

Borrowed from English bit (“binary digit”).

bit m (definite singular biten, indefinite plural bit or bitar, definit plural bitane)

1. a bit (binary digit)

Inherited from Old Norse bit.

bit n (definite singular bitet, indefinite plural bit, definite plural bita)

1. a bite (e.g. insect bite, dog bite)
2. a bite, mouthful (of food)

From the first person singular present indicative of Old Norse bíta, and from the second person singular imperative Old Norse bíta.

bit

1. inflection of bite:
   1. present
   2. imperative

• “bit” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

bīt

1. imperative singular of bītan

bit

1. third-person plural future of is

Borrowed from English bit.

bit m inan (related adjective bitowy)

1. (mathematics, computing) bit (binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0)

   bit informacji ― a bit of information

   bit po bicie ― bit by bit

Borrowed from English beat.

bit m inan

1. beat (instrumental portion of a piece of hip-hop music)
2. (music) beat (rhythm signalled by a conductor or other musician to the members of a group of musicians)

Borrowed from English drill bit.

bit m inan

1. drill bit

Borrowed from English big beat.

bit m inan

1. big beat (form of pop music having distorted breakbeats at a moderate tempo)

   Synonym: big-beat

   polski bit ― Polish big beat

• “bit”, in Wielki słownik języka polskiego‎^[10] (in Polish), Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
• “bit”, in Polish dictionaries at PWN‎^[11] (in Polish)

Unadapted borrowing from English bit.

bit m (plural bits)

1. (mathematics, computing) bit (binary digit)

• byte (unit equivalent to 8 bits)

Borrowed from English bit or French bit.

bit m (plural biți)

1. (computing) bit

Related to German bis.

bit

1. until

bit

1. until, to

• Marron C. Fort (2015), “bit”, in Saterfriesisches Wörterbuch mit einer phonologischen und grammatischen Übersicht, Buske, →ISBN

bit

1. Little.
   • 1889, Jessup Whitehead, The Steward's Handbook and Guide to Party Catering, page 439:

   • 1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:

     He laid a hundred guineas with the laird of Slofferfield that he would drive four horses through the Slofferfield loch, and in the prank he had his bit chariot dung to pieces and a good mare killed.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

bit (plural bits)

1. (slang) the area one resides in; neighbourhood, ends

From bȉti (“to be”).

bȋt f (Cyrillic spelling би̑т)

1. essence
2. point, meaning

• “bit”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2026

Borrowed from English bit.

bȉt m inan (Cyrillic spelling би̏т)

1. (computing) bit

• “bit”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2026

From Serbo-Croatian biti, from Proto-Slavic *byti, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *bū́ˀtei, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-.

bit pf or impf

1. to be

• Walter Breu and Giovanni Piccoli (2000), Dizionario croato molisano di Acquaviva Collecroce: Dizionario plurilingue della lingua slava della minoranza di provenienza dalmata di Acquaviva Collecroce in Provincia di Campobasso (Parte grammaticale)., pp. 409–412

Borrowed from English bit.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbit/ [ˈbit̪]
• Rhymes: -it
• Syllabification: bit

bit m (plural bits)

1. bit (binary digit)

From Old Norse biti.

bit c

1. a piece (forming a part of some whole)

   en pusselbit

   a puzzle piece

   en tårtbit / en bit tårta [note that there is no preposition]

   a piece of cake (not an idiom in Swedish – see lätt som en plätt)

   Jag åt tre bitar McNuggets

   I ate three pieces of McNuggets

   Koppen föll i golvet och gick i tusen bitar

   The cup fell to the floor and broke [went] into a thousand pieces

   torskfilé i bitar

   cod fillet cut into pieces

   1. a bit

      Actionhjälten sprängde skurkarna i bitar

      The action hero blew the bad guys to pieces/bits

2. a bit (certain (not insignificant) distance)

   Den ligger en bit väster om byn

   It lies a bit west of the village

   Huset ligger en bit längre fram

   The house is a bit further ahead

   Det simmar en svan en bit ut på sjön

   There is a swan swimming a bit out on the lake

   Vi följde med henne en bit på vägen

   We accompanied her part of the way [We followed with her a bit on the way (to where she was going)]

   Det är en bra bit till Säffle

   It's quite a drive to Säffle ["It is a good bit to Säffle" – "bra bit" is a common collocation]

   Ta på dig vandringskängorna. Det är en bit att gå.

   Put on your hiking boots. It's a bit of a walk [a bit (implied long) to walk].

   1. way, ways, distance (when more idiomatic)
   2. (figuratively) a bit (of time)

      Vi planerar att skaffa katt en bit längre fram [can also be expressed as "lite längre fram"]

      We're planning to get a cat a bit later on ["further ahead" (longer forth) – still thought of as a distance]

3. a tune, a piece (song)

   Synonyms: låt, sång

   en svängig bit

   a swinging tune

Del (“part”) is often more idiomatic when piece is interchangeable with part.

• del (“part”)
• stycke (piece that is a fragment of something in some sense – compare stycka)

From English bit, from binary digit.

bit c

1. (computing) a bit

   ett 64-bitars operativsystem

   a 64-bit [bits'] operating system

bit

1. imperative of bita

Inherited from Ottoman Turkish بیت, بت (bit), from Proto-Turkic *bït (“louse”).

bit (definite accusative biti, plural bitler)

1. (zoology, specifically) louse belonging to genus Pediculus
   • 1940 March 20, “Bütün Haşaratı öldürmeliyiz [We must kill all the bugs]”, in Yeniyol:

     Üzerimizde bulunan çamaşırlarımız arasında saklanan, başımızdaki saçlar arasında yaşıyan ve insandan insana gezen bitleri tanımıyan yoktur.

     Everyone is familiar with lice, which hide in our clothes, live in the hair on our heads, and travel from person to person.

2. (generally) a sucking insect parasitic on plants or animals, including true lice and aphids
   • 1935 June 28, “Gelinböceklerini öldürmeyiniz! [Don't kill ladybugs!]”, in Zaman, page 5:

     Meyva ağaçlarında çiçeklerde, birçok sebzelerde, bostanlarda yaprakları ve genç sürgünleri sim siyah saran ve onları buruşturup kurutan bu hastalık Puseron adındaki küçük bir takım bitlerden ileri gelir. Ona fen dilinde Afis dirler.

     This disease, which turns leaves and young shoots of fruit trees, flowers, many vegetables, and orchards black, causing them to shrivel and dry, is caused by a small insect called 'puceron'. In the scientific language, it is called 'afis'.

3. ellipsis of bitpazarı (“flea market”)

   Hırkam, ee, bitten.

   My cardigan, I bought it from uh... flea market.

Borrowed from English bit, abbreviation of binary digit.

bit (definite accusative biti, plural bitler)

1. (computing) bit

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

bit

1. second-person singular imperative of bitmek

• “bit”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
• Ayverdi, İlhan (2010), “bit”, in Misalli Büyük Türkçe Sözlük, a reviewed and expanded single-volume edition, Istanbul: Kubbealtı Neşriyatı
• Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007), “bit¹”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), volume 1, Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 629
• Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007), “bit⁵”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), volume 1, Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 629
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–), “bit”, in Nişanyan Sözlük

From Proto-Turkic *bït (“louse”). Cognate with Old Turkic [script needed] (bit), Turkish bit (“louse”), etc.

bit (definite accusative bidi, plural bitler)

1. (zoology) louse

bit

1. (computing) bit

From Proto-Tai *pitᴰ (“duck”).^[1]

In Northern Tai, cognate with Bouyei bidt, Saek ปิ๊ด.

In Zuojiang Zhuang, cognate with bwt (Chongzuo and Ningming dialects)^[2] or bit (Longzhou dialect)^[2] or bet (Daxin dialect).^[2]

In Central Tai, cognate with Nong Zhuang bet (Guangnan dialect)^[2] or baet (Yanshan dialect)^[2] or byet.

In Southwestern Tai, cognate with Thai เป็ด (bpèt), Northern Thai ᨸᩮᩢ᩠ᨯ, Isan เป็ด, Lao ເປັດ (pet), Khün ᨸᩮ᩠ᨯ, Lü ᦵᦔᧆ (ṗed), Tai Dam ꪹꪜꪸꪒ, Shan ပဵတ်း (páet), Tai Nüa ᥙᥥᥖᥱ (pět), Ahom 𑜆𑜢𑜄𑜫 (pit).

Compare Old Chinese 鴄 (OC *pʰid), Proto-Be *ɓitᴰ¹.

bit (classifier duz, Sawndip forms 鴓[3] or 𱈶[3] or ⿰品鳥[3], 1957–1982 spelling bit)

1. duck

From Chinese 筆 (MC pit).

bit (classifier gaiq, Sawndip forms 𣭈[3] or 𰚎[3], 1957–1982 spelling bit)

1. pen; pencil; writing implement

bit (1957–1982 spelling bit)

1. Classifier for sums of money and deals.

From Chinese 匹 (MC phjit).

bit (1957–1982 spelling bit)

1. Classifier for cloth: bolt of