An example of this occurs in Congreve: Notes and Queries, 10 S. viii. 204.
1747. There were two gentlemen fit yesterday, and my mistress was never so diverted in her life.—Tag, in Garrick’s ‘Miss in her Teens.’
1800. Deny, if your please, my lord, that it was for a golden pippin that the three goddesses fit.—Sir Terence O’Fay in Maria Edgeworth’s ‘Absentee,’ chap. ii.
1821. Dr. Dwight calls fit a Cockneyism, ‘Travels,’ iv. 281. But see the following examples.
1825. One day, our Towzle he fit a painter.—John Neal,’ Brother Jonathan,’ ii. 41.
1835. Any body can get in, if he only fit big battles enough. I’d give a year’s sellary in a minute, if Mr. Van Buren had ever fit a great battle so as to be called a hero.—Bucks Co. (Pa.) Intelligencer, Nov. 4.
1839.
| But though they fit and run away, | |
| They warn’t a bit of cowards; | |
| They lived to fight another day, | |
| When lookin’ Gin’ral Howe-wards. | |
Havana (N.Y.) Republican, from Journal of Commerce, n.d. |
1839. Here’s a going to be one of the peskiest battles that ever was fit.—Chemung (N.Y.) Democrat, April 17.
1840. I have never slept more soundly than when I have fi’t (sic) the Mingos.—J. F. Cooper, ‘The Pathfinder,’ i. 38 (Lond.).
1843. I began to be a-feered, but fell to and fit as well as I could.—Knick. Mag., xxi. 256 (March).
1845. There’s a mighty chance of lawyer’s lies in the papers [filed in court], but some part is true. I did strike the old lady, but she fit me powerfully first.—‘The Cincinnati Miscellany, A Court Scene in Georgia,’ i. 140.
1846. We fit round and round about the barrels an boxes ’bout half an hour.—W. T. Porter, ed., ‘A Quarter Race in Kentucky,’ etc., p. 45.
1846. Two fellers fit out of the door, down the hill, and into the creek, and there ended it in a quiet way, all alone.—Id., p. 88.
1846. My grandfather fit the British under Begyne [Burgoyne], thar in old Virginny…. I had a boy to load my rifle, and while he was doing it, I fit the Indians with a hatchet.—E. W. Farnham, ‘Life in Prairie Land,’ pp. 108, 110.
1847. We fit our way into the city of Mexico.—Seba Smith, ‘Major Jack Downing,’ p. 275 (1860).
1848. Some portraits of the Seminole chiefs, what fit us so hard a few years ago.—W. T. Thompson, ‘Major Jones’s Sketches of Travel,’ p. 55 (Phila.).
1848.
| But somehow, wen we ’d fit an’ licked, I ollers found the thanks | |
| Gut kin’ o’ lodged afore they come ez low down ez the ranks. | |
Lowell, ‘Biglow Papers,’ 1st Series, No. 8. |
1853. She fit against the civility till her straw bonnet was used up like a crushed eggshell.—Phila. Mercury, n.d.
1862. They actually fit and struggled over the first bucketsful so that every drop of the water was spilled, and then lapped it up off the deck like dogs!.—Harper’s Weekly, vi. p. 187 (March 22).
a. 1863. If I live to get through this war, and two candidates are presented for my suffrage, the very first question I mean to ask will be: ‘Which one of them fit?’ and I mean always to vote for the man who fit. I tell you those able-bodied men who are sleeping in feather beds to-night, while we are standing here in the rain to guard their precious carcasses, must be content to take back seats when we get home.—‘Southern Hist. Soc. Papers,’ ix. 133 (Richmond, Va.).
1869. He hadn’t fit the Arminians and Socinians to be beat by a tom-turkey.—Mrs. Stowe, ‘Old-Town Stories’ (‘The Minister’s Housekeeper’).
1869. She allers fit and flouted her beaux, and the more she fit and flouted ’em the more they ’d be after her.—Id. (‘Mis’ Elderkin’s Pitcher’).
