Pronunciation Verb
hit (hits, present participle hitting; past hit, past participle hit)
- (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 752825175 ↗:
- 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 & Co.; Sylvia Beach, OCLC 560090630 ↗; republished London: Published for the Egoist Press, London by John Rodker, Paris, October 1922, OCLC 2297483 ↗, [https://archive.org/stream/ulysses00joyc_1#page/Bello}}: (Whimpers) You're after hitting me. I'll tell […]/mode/1up page Bello}}: (Whimpers) You're after hitting me. I'll tell […]]:
- {smallcaps
- 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 27, [Jonathan Swift], chapter V, in Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. […] [Gulliver’s Travels], volume I, London: Printed for Benj[amin] Motte, […], OCLC 995220039 ↗, 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 6963663 ↗:
- If bodies be extension alone, […] how can they move and hit one against another?
- (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.
- (transitive) To administer a blow to, directly or with a weapon or missile.
- (transitive) To manage to touch in the right place.
- I hit the jackpot.
- Antonyms: miss
- (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 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.
- (intransitive) To meet or reach what was aimed at or desired; to succeed, often by luck.
- c. 1604–1605, William Shakespeare, “All’s VVell, that Ends VVell”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene i]:
- And oft it hits / Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.
- 1733, Jonathan Swift, On Poetry, a Rhapsody
- Millions miss for one that hits.
- To guess; to light upon or discover.
- c. 1590–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act II, scene i]:
- Thou hast hit it.
- (transitive, informal) To reach or achieve.
- (transitive) To affect negatively.
- The economy was hit by a recession. The hurricane hit his fishing business hard.
- (metaphorically) To attack.
- (heading, games) To make a play.
- (transitive, cards) 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, cards) 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.
- (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
- (manage to touch in the right place) miss
- French: frapper, battre
- German: schlagen, treffen, stoßen
- Italian: colpire, picchiare, battere
- Portuguese: golpear, bater
- Russian: ударя́ть
- Spanish: golpear, pegar, batir, dar
- French: cogner
- German: schlagen, (colloquial) knallen
- Portuguese: bater, chocar-se, colidir
- Russian: ударяться
- Spanish: dar, chocar
- Russian: напада́ть
- German: treffen
- French: taper
- German: abschlagen
- French: frapper
- French: se taper
hit (plural hits)
- A blow; a punch; 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.
- The hit was very slight.
Something very successful, such as a song, film, or video game, that receives widespread recognition and acclaim. - An attack on a location, person or people.
- A collision of a projectile with the target.
- 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.
- (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 ), London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], OCLC 960856019 ↗: - {quote-meta/quote
- (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.
- French: coup
- German: Schlag, Hieb, Stoß, Treffer
- Portuguese: golpe, batida
- Russian: уда́р
- Spanish: golpe
- French: hit, tube
- German: Hit, Erfolg, Schlager
- Portuguese: hit, sucesso
- Russian: хит
- Spanish: éxito, hit
- French: hit, résultat
- German: Treffer, Hit
- Italian: risultato
- Portuguese: acerto, resultado
- Spanish: acierto, resultado
- French: hit
- Portuguese: acerto
- French: contrat, assassinat commandité m
- Portuguese: assassínio (Portugal), assassinato (Brazil)
hit (not comparable)
- Very successful.
- The band played their hit song to the delight of the fans.
- (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.
- 1922, Philip Gengembre Hubert, The Atlantic monthly, Volume 130:
HIT
Noun
hit (plural hits)
- Acronym of high-intensity interval training
- Acronym of high-intensity training
- Abbreviation of hyperspectral imaging technique. or Abbreviation of hyper-spectral imaging technique.
- Acronym of human intelligence task
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