Forms: 1 bita, 2 bite, 3–6 byte, 6 bytte, 6– bit. [Com. Teut.: OE. bita wk. masc., morsel, bit = OFris. bita, OS. *bito, (MDu. bete, Du. beet bit, morsel), OHG. bizzo biting, MHG. bizze, mod.G. bisse, bissen piece bitten off, bit, ON. biti bit, mouthful (Sw. bit, Da. bid bit, morsel):—OTeut. *biton- wk. masc., f. bítan to bite. As to the relation of this to BIT sb.1, see that word; both became in ME. bĭte, mod.Eng. bit, so that the two words can now be separated only in sense. In the strict sense of ‘the portion bitten off,’ the later sb. BITE is now used.]
† 1. The portion of food bitten off at once; as much as is taken in the mouth at once; a mouthful; = BITE sb. 4. Obs.
c. 1000. Ags. Gosp., John xiii. 27. Þa æfter þam bitan [Hatton, bite] satanas eode on hyne.
1297. R. Glouc., 207. And yspyted hym þoru out myd an yrene spyte, And rostede in þys grete fure to abbe þe folle byte.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. XVIII. 200. Þe bite þat þei eten.
1570. Levins, Manip., 143. Bit, buccella, minutal.
1590. Spenser, F. Q., I. viii. 41. His bare thin cheekes for want of better bits.
1622. Fletcher, Span. Curate, II. iv. 33. He’ll eat but half-a-dozen bits, and rise immediatly.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., iii. ad fin. When we dip them in vinegar, we may, for sauce to one bit, devour alive a schole of little animals.
† b. A bite or mouthful of grass for cattle. Obs.
1523. Fitzherb., Husb., § 70. And there be to moche grasse in a close, the cattel shall fede the worse, for a good bytte to the erthe is suffycyente.
1579. Tomson, Calvin Serm. Tim., 151/2. The verie asses may haue a bit there, as we say in common prouerbes.
This passes into the sense of:
2. Morsel, small piece (of food), without actual reference to biting. Hence dainty bit, tit-bit, etc.
c. 1200. Ormin, 8640. He badd tatt ȝho shollde himm ec An bite brædess brinngenn.
c. 1550. Scot. Poems 16th C., II. 197. Gif God was made of bits of breid.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., I. i. 26. Dainty bits Make rich the ribs, but bankerout the wits.
c. 1626. Dick of Devon, I. ii. in Bullen, O. Pl., II. 15. England that yeare was but a bit pickd out To be layd on their Kinges Trencher.
1684. Bunyan, Pilgr., II. 67. Come, said Christiana, will you eat a bit?
c. 1850. Arab. Nts. (Rtldg.), 615. I had not had a bit of meat for a long time in my house.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 11. 80. We had not a bit of bread nor a drop of wine left.
By extension to other things:
3. A small piece formed by cutting, breaking, or other process; a morsel, a fragment.
1606. Shaks., Tr. & Cr., V. ii. 159. The fragments, scraps, the bits, & greazie reliques, Of her ore-eaten faith.
1611. Cotgr., Piecette, a shred, bit, morsell, manmocke; a small parcell, or peece.
1694. Salmon, Iatrica, I. v. 303/1. Cut also the root of Peony into little bits.
1716–18. Lady M. W. Montague, Lett., I. x. 35. There is not the least bit of linen to be seen.
1838. Cooper, Surg. Dict., 1470. To remove [from the wound] any extraneous matter, such as gravel, bits of glass or china.
b. By bits: a little at a time. Bit by bit: = prec., gradually, piecemeal; also attrib. and quasi-sb. † At bits and starts: irregularly, intermittingly (cf. by fits and starts).
1596. Spenser, F. Q., IV. ii. 33. Workes of heavenly wits Are quite devourd, and brought to nought by little bits!
1634. Gataker, Transubst., 176. His grace is not consumed by bits.
1632. Sherwood, By bitts, par morceaux.
1704. Swift, T. Tub (1768), I. 142. He writ it in a week at bits and starts.
1849. Hare, Par. Serm., II. 189. To pick it up in this way bit by bit.
1871. Freeman, Hist. Ess., Ser. I. ii. 45. This sort of bit-by-bit reform, going on for six hundred years.
4. A small portion or quantity, a little (of anything material or immaterial). Also applied to complete objects, viewed as portions or samples of a substance. To give any one a bit of one’s mind: (colloq.) to express one’s candid (and uncomplimentary) opinion of his conduct, etc.
1740–61. Mrs. Delany, Life & Corr. (1861), III. 239. I shall be only allowed bits and scraps of time for it.
1787. ‘G. Gambado,’ Acad. Horsem. (1809), 20. Nothing now is to be seen but bred horses; every apprentice must bestride a bit of blood.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xi. There was never a prettier bit o’ horseflesh in the stable o’ the Gordon Arms.
1859. Jephson, Brittany, xv. 244. Picturesque little bits of scenery.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), I. App. 696. The vigorous little bit of English.
1873. H. Spencer, Stud. Sociol., vii. (1877), 154. The peasant was called from his heavily-burdened bit of land.
1876. Trevelyan, Macaulay, II. ix. 122. This bit of criticism shews genuine perspicacity.
1864. Ld. Campbell, in Times, 12 April, 5/2. (Hoppe). He had given the House what was called ‘a bit of his mind’ on the subject.
b. ellipt.
1862. Ansted, Channel Isl., I. iv. (ed. 2), 63. The rocky bits to be seen at the back of Herm.
1879. Furnivall, Rep. E. Eng. Text Soc., 6. The Preface has an interesting bit … about Wine-growing in England.
c. Used depreciatively or pitifully in Sc. and north Eng., as in ‘bits of children’ = poor little children. Also in colloquial Eng., in singular, as ‘a bit of a coward’ = somewhat of a coward; ‘a little bit of a place’ = a place comparatively petty.
1677. Rutherford, Lett., lxxix. (1862), I. 201. What is behind … but that sinners warm their bits of clay houses at a fire of their own kindling.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxvi. When Ailie has had her new gown and the bairns their bits o’ duds.
1855. Carlyle, in Froude, Life (1885), II. xxii. 170. Thy bits of debts paid.
1861. Geo. Eliot, Silas M., 110. As to washing its bits o’ things.
1885. Illustr. Lond. News, 9 May, 491/1. A bit of a landslip somewhere down the line.
1885. Manch. Exam., 28 May, 5/3. If Riel proved himself to be a bit of a coward.
5. colloq. A very small measure or degree, a jot, a whit; used advb. in the expressions a bit: a little, somewhat, rather; not a bit: not in the least, not at all; every bit: entirely, quite.
1675. Cotton, Poet. Wks. (1765). I had not wrong’d the Gods a bit.
1719. T. Gordon, Cordial Low Spir., 174. An Aspect every Bit as terrible.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, IX. vi. He loves her not a bit the worse.
1860. Geo. Eliot, Mill on Fl., ii. II. 71. You should have sent me to school a bit more.
1865. Trollope, Belton Est., iii. 26. The old tower out there. It isn’t changed a bit!
1869. Trevelyan, Horace at Univ. Athens, 61. He sings a sparkling song, can write a bit.
1885. Illustr. Lond. News, 14 Feb., 184/1. I am a little bit afraid of him.
6. colloq. A short while; a short space of time.
1653. Walton, Angler, 211. There we sit For a bit Till we fish intangle.
1794. Godwin, Cal. Williams (1849), 86. ‘I think we may as well stop here a bit.’
1800. Mar. Edgeworth, Cast. Rackrent, Wks. 1832, I. 70. ‘It’s no time for punch yet a bit.’
1884. P’cess Alice Mem., 41. I cannot tell you what pleasure it has been to have that dear child a little bit.
b. Sc. The exact point or ‘nick’ of time.
1785. Burns, Addr. Deil, xi. When the best wark-lume i’the house … Is instant made no worth a louse, Just at the bit.
7. Sc. A small piece of ground, a ‘spot.’
1814. Scott, Wav., III. 237. It’s a bieldy enough bit. Ibid. (1816), Antiq., xxv. What gars ye stop [digging] now?—ye’re just at the very bit for a chance.
1879. Jamieson, Sc. Dict., s.v., He canna stan’ in a bit [i.e., still, in one spot].
8. In reference to money:
a. Thieves’ slang. Money. Cf. BITE sb. 5.
1607. Dekker, Jests to make Merie, Wks. (Grosart), II. 328. If they … once knew where the bung and the bit is … your purse and the money. Ibid. (1608), Belm. Lond., III. 122. To learne … what store of Bit he hath in his Bag.
1832. Mirror, 17 Nov., 333. Coiners … vulgus, Bit-makers.
b. Applied in the Southern States of N. America, in the West Indies, etc., to small silver coins forming fractions of the Spanish dollar, or (when these are obsolete) to their value in current money.
Last century the bit was generally the old Mexican real = 1/2 of a dollar or about 61/2d. sterling; later values assigned are a half pistareen or 1/10 of a dollar, 1/14 of a dollar, and (in some colonies) the value of 11/2d. sterling.
1683. Col. Rec. Penn., I. 85. Their Abuse to ye Governmt, in Quining of Spanish Bitts and Boston money.
1730. Southall, Buggs, 8. I would give him some more Tobacco and a Bit, (a Piece of Spanish Money, there current at Seven-pence Half-Penny).
1780. Cook, Voy. (1785), I. 18. The meat is … sold for half a Bit (three pence sterling) a pound.
c. 1782. T. Jefferson, Autobiog., Wks. 1859, I. App. 165. The tenth [of the dollar] will be precisely the Spanish bit, or half-pistareen.
a. 1848. Marryat, R. Reefer, liii. I … gave my sable nurses a handful of bits each.
1883. R. L. Stevenson, in Century Mag., XXVII. 29/2. With six bits in his pocket and an axe upon his shoulder.
c. colloq. A small coin or ‘piece’ of money, the value being generally named, as seven-shilling bit (an obs. Eng. gold coin), sixpenny, fourpenny, and threepenny bit. In slang = fourpence.
1829. Marryat, F. Mildmay, ii. A seven shilling bit would be thought handsome.
9. In Scotch bit is used for bit of (‘a bit bread’; cf. Ger. ein Stück Brod), and for bit of a (‘a bit bairn’); in the latter use it approaches the nature of an adj. = little, tiny, small.
1785. Burns, Cotter’s Sat. Nt., ii. His wee bit ingle blinkin bonilie.
1787. Beattie, Scoticisms, 13. A bit bread, a bit paper.—A bit of bread, a bit of paper.
1816. Scott, Antiq., vii. I heard ye were here, frae the bit callant ye sent.
1883. J. Hawthorne, in Harper’s Mag., Nov., 926/1. I can take a bit draw of the pipe.
10. Comb. Bit-wise, little by little, a bit at a time, piecemeal.
1832. Austin, Jurispr. (1879), II. 1064. Codified law does not adapt itself to the successive wants of successive ages so easily as law made bit-wise.
