or weabit, webit, subs. (provincial).—A considerable though indefinite addition to a mile; a BITTOCK (q.v.).
1611. COTGRAVE, Dictionarie, s.v. Huquée. It n’y a qu’vne huquée (Much like our Northern WEE-BIT) You have but a little (saies the clown, when you have a great) way thither.
1617–30. HOWELL, Familiar Letters, iv. 28. In the North parts … there is a WEA-BIT to every mile.
1662. FULLER, Worthies, ‘Yorkshire,’ II. 494. ‘An Yorkshire WAY-BIT.’ That is, an Over-plus not accounted in the reckoning, which sometimes proveth as much as all the rest. Ibid., II. 535. General Leslie, with his Scottish, ran away more than a Yorkshire mile and a WEE BIT.
1692. J. HACKET, Life of Archbishop Williams, i. 59. I have heard him prefer divers, and very seriously, before himself, who came short a mile and a WAY-BIT.
