bit

• enPR: bĭt, IPA^(key): /bɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪt

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”). Cognate with West Frisian bit, Saterland Frisian Bit, Dutch bit, German Low German Beet, Biet, German Biss, Danish bid, Swedish bit, Icelandic biti.

bit (plural bits)

1. 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, used to bore holes.
3. (dated, Britain) A coin of a specified value. (Also formerly used for a nine-pence coin in the British Caribbean, and a fourpenny piece, or groat, in the British West Indies.)

   a threepenny bit

4. (obsolete, Canada) A ten-cent piece, dime.
   • 1941, Emily Carr, Klee Wyck, Chapter 10,

     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. (US) An eighth of a dollar. Note that there is no coin minted worth 12.5 cents. (When this term first came into use, the Spanish 8 reales coin was widely used as a dollar equivalent, and thus the 1 real coin was equivalent to 12.5 cents.)

   A quarter is two bits.

6. (historical, US) In the southern and southwestern states, a small silver coin (such as the real) formerly current; commonly, one worth about 12½ cents; also, the sum of 12½ cents.
7. 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.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 15, in The China Governess‎:

     ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’

8. (informal) 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.

9. A portion of something.
   • 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.

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

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

    Am I bored? Not a bit of it!

    • T. Hook

      My young companion was a bit of a poet.

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

12. 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.

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

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

14. The cutting iron of a plane.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

• (coin): coin, piece
• (small piece): morsel (of food), piece, scrap
• (portion): portion, share, segment
• (horse equipment): snaffle, pelham, kimberwicke

bit (not comparable)

1. To a small extent; in a small amount (usually with "a").

   That's a bit too sweet.

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

bit

1. simple past tense of bite

   Your dog bit me!

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

   I have been bit by your dog!

bit (not comparable)

1. (colloquial) bitten.

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

2. (only in combination) Having been bitten.
   • 1984, Field & Stream, volume 89, number July, 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:

     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, 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”. First used in print 1948 by Claude Shannon. Compare byte and nybble.

bit (plural bits)

1. (mathematics, computing) A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.
2. (computing) The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.
3. (information theory, cryptography) Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values.

   status bits on IRC; permission bits in a file system

4. (information theory) A unit of measure for information entropy.
   • 2011 May 17, Lisa Grossman, “Entropy Is Universal Rule of Language”, in Wired Science‎, retrieved 2012-09-26:

     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.

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

• (smallest unit of storage): b

• ban, nat, qubit

• ITB, TBI, TiB, tib

From Proto-Turkic *bït (“louse”).

• IPA^(key): [bit]

bit (definite accusative biti, plural bitlər)

1. louse

• (Balearic, Central, Valencian) IPA^(key): /ˈbit/
• Rhymes: -it

bit m (plural bits)

1. (computing) bit

Borrowed from English bit, from binary digit.

• audio

  (file)

bit m

1. (computing) bit

• bitový
• osmibitový
• šestnáctibitový

• IPA^(key): /bɪt/

• Audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪt

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

• IPA^(key): /bit/

• Audio

  (file)

bit m (plural bits)

1. (computing) bit

• “bit” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From English bit.[1]

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

bit (plural bitek)

1. (computing) bit (binary digit)

• jelzőbit

bit

1. sun

• https://inter.payap.ac.th/wp-content/uploads/linguistics_students/Luk_Hkaw_Thesis2017.pdf

• IPA^(key): /bʲit/

bit

1. supine of biś

From English beat.

bit

1. beat

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)

• isbit
• smakebit

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

• IPA^(key): /biːt/

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

1. a bit, piece (of something)

• isbit
• smakebit

From English bit (binary digit)

• IPA^(key): /bɪtː/

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

1. a bit (binary digit)

From Old Norse bit

• IPA^(key): /biːt/

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)

• IPA^(key): /biːt/

bit

1. present tense of bite
2. imperative of bite

• “bit” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

bit

1. third-person plural future of is

Borrowed from English bit.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbit͡ʃ(i)/, /ˈbit(i)/

bit m (plural bits)

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

• Abbreviations: b

• Multiples: kilobit, megabit, gigabit, terabit, petabit, exabit, zettabit, yottabit

• byte (unit equivalent to 8 bits)

From bȉti (“to be”)

• IPA^(key): /bîːt/

bȋt f (Cyrillic spelling би̑т)

1. essence
2. point, meaning

From English bit

• IPA^(key): /bît/

bȉt m (Cyrillic spelling би̏т)

1. (computing) bit

bit m (plural bits)

1. bit (binary digit)

From Old Norse biti, noun definitions 2 and 4: From English bit, from binary digit.

• IPA^(key): /biːt/ (1–4)
• IPA^(key): /bɪt/ (3–4)

• audio

  (file)

bit c

1. bit (small piece)
2. bit (portion)
3. bit (binary digit)
4. bit (unit of storage)

• pusselbit
• sockerbit

bit

1. imperative of bita.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbit/

From Proto-Turkic *bït (“louse”).

bit (definite accusative biti, plural bitler)

1. (zoology) louse

• bit yeniği (fishy)
• bitli (lousy)

• pire (flea)

Borrowed from English bit, abbreviation of binary digit.

bit (definite accusative biti, plural bitler)

1. (computing) bit

bit

1. second-person singular imperative of bitmek

From Old Turkic bit‎ (bit), from Proto-Turkic *bɨt (“louse”).

• IPA^(key): /bit̪/

bit (definite accusative bidi, plural bitler)

1. (zoology) louse

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɓit̚˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɓit̚˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [ʔɓɨt̚˧˧]

bit

1. (computing) bit

• (Standard Zhuang) IPA^(key): /pit˥/
• Tone numbers: bit⁷
• Hyphenation: bit

From Proto-Tai *pitᴰ (“duck”). Cognate with Thai เป็ด (bpèt), Lao ເປັດ (pet), Lü ᦵᦔᧆ (ṗed), Tai Dam ꪹꪜꪸꪒ, Shan ပဵတ်း (pét), Ahom 𑜆𑜢𑜄𑜫 (pit), Bouyei bidt, Saek ปิ๊ด. Compare Old Chinese 鴄 (OC *pʰid).

bit (old orthography bit, Sawndip forms 鴓, classifier duz)

1. duck

From Chinese 筆 (MC pˠiɪt̚).

bit (old orthography bit, Sawndip forms 𣭈, classifier gaiq)

1. pen; pencil; writing implement

bit (old orthography bit)

1. Classifier for sums of money and deals.

From Chinese 匹 (MC pʰiɪt̚).

bit (old orthography bit)

1. Classifier for cloth: bolt of