# bit

Pronunciation: US say "BIT" /bɪt/; UK

## Noun

1. A small amount or quantity of something.
   - Simple: A small amount of something.
   - _There was still a bit of milk left in the carton._
   - _He needed a bit of luck to finish the puzzle._
2. A part or portion of a larger whole.
   - Simple: A part or section of a larger thing.
   - _The best bit of the film comes in the last ten minutes._
   - _He read the boring bit of the report aloud anyway._
3. A small degree or extent, as in a bit tired or a bit late, or in negatives, not at all.
   - Simple: A little, as in a bit late. With not, it means not at all.
   - _The new manager turned out to be a bit of a perfectionist._
   - _The room felt a bit cold, so she closed the window._
4. A binary digit, 0 or 1, the smallest unit of information in computing and digital storage.
   - Simple: The smallest unit of computer data, which is either a 1 or a 0.
   - _The file was corrupted when a single bit flipped during transfer._
   - _In binary, the number five is written with three bits: 1, 0, and 1._
5. A short period of time. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A short time, as in 'wait a bit'.
   - _I'll be ready in a bit, so grab your coat._
   - _They chatted for a bit before the meeting began._
7. A short comic routine or piece of a performance, or a joke someone keeps up as if it were true.
   - Simple: A short funny part of a show, or a joke someone keeps pretending is real.
   - _Her stand-up set opened with a bit about online dating._
   - _My brother pretended to forget my name all through dinner and refused to drop the bit._
8. Short for bit part: a small acting role with few or no lines in a film, play or TV show. — Ellipsis of bit part.
   - Simple: Short for bit part: a very small acting role with few or no lines.
   - _The casting director offered him a bit as a bartender, with three lines and one day of shooting._
   - _Her first bit had only two lines of dialogue._
9. A replaceable tip fitted to a drill, router, or screwdriver, used to bore holes, cut, or drive screws.
   - Simple: The part you put into a drill or screwdriver to make holes or turn screws.
   - _She swapped the dull bit for a carbide one before drilling the steel._
   - _A masonry bit is needed to bore through brick._
10. A mouthpiece, usually of metal, placed in a horse's mouth and attached to the reins, used to guide and control the animal.
   - Simple: A bar, usually metal, put in a horse's mouth and joined to the reins, used to steer it.
   - _She adjusted the bit so it sat comfortably in the gelding's mouth._
   - _Some horses chew nervously on the bit before a race._
12. A period of time someone spends serving a prison term, particularly a short one. *(slang)*
   - Simple: A period of time spent in prison, often a short one.
   - _He served a three-year bit before making parole._
   - _After his last bit, he swore he'd stay clean._
14. The end of a key that is inserted into a lock and works the bolt and tumblers.
   - Simple: The shaped part of a key that goes into the lock and moves the parts inside.
   - _A locksmith examined the bit to find out why the key jammed._
   - _The locksmith studied the worn bit of the antique key before cutting a new one for the chest._
15. A unit of currency worth one eighth of a dollar, originally of a Spanish dollar; also a coin of that value, especially the silver Spanish real. *(historical, Canada, US)*
   - Simple: An old unit of money worth one eighth of a dollar, or a coin worth that amount.
16. The cutting iron set into a plane, the blade that shaves the wood as the tool is pushed.
   - Simple: The sharp metal blade in a tool used to shave wood smooth.
   - _The carpenter adjusted the bit so the plane took a finer shaving._
   - _A nicked bit leaves tracks across the planed surface._
17. On an axehead, the beveled front edge that carries the sharpened cutting edge.
   - Simple: The sloped front edge of an axe head where the sharp cutting edge is.
   - _The bit of the axe struck the log squarely and split it in one blow._
   - _Slip a leather sheath over the axe's bit before you pack it for the trip._

## Verb

6. Past tense of bite. In older or informal use, also its past participle. — simple past of bite
   - Simple: Past tense of bite.
   - _The puppy bit through the leash during the walk._
   - _He bit his tongue to keep from laughing._
13. To fit a horse with a bridle, setting the bit in the toothless gap between its front and back teeth.
   - Simple: To put a bridle on a horse, with the bar of the bridle in its mouth.
   - _It takes a calm hand to bit a nervous horse without upsetting it._
   - _Before the lesson, she bitted and saddled the old gelding, checking that the snaffle sat comfortably in its mouth._

## Adjective

11. Having been bitten, chiefly in compounds that name the biter, such as dog-bit or flea-bit.
   - Simple: Bitten, usually in words that name what did the biting, like dog-bit or bug-bit.
   - _'Got dog-bit twice delivering papers as a kid,' Grandpa said, rolling up his sleeve to show the scar._
   - _'Look at my legs,' Tara groaned on the last morning of the campout, 'I'm mosquito-bit all over.'_

## Noun

18. A coin of a specified value, the amount given before the word, as in a threepenny or sixpenny piece. *(dated, British)*
   - Simple: A coin of a value named before 'bit', as in 'threepenny bit'.
   - _Gran kept a threepenny bit in her apron for luck._
   - _The old sixpenny bit was no longer accepted at the shop._

## Other meanings

- (noun) A unit of measure for information entropy, equal to the information gained from a choice between two equally likely outcomes.
- (noun) One millionth of a bitcoin (0.000001 BTC).
- (noun) A gag of a style similar to a bridle, worn in the mouth.
- (noun) A firearm; a gun.
- (noun) A coin worth close to, but not exactly, an eighth of a dollar, especially the dime, which was called a short bit.
- (noun) A former coin and money unit of Britain's Caribbean colonies, at first worth an eighth of the Spanish dollar, then steadily less as it was debased.
- (noun) A tiny money unit of the Danish West Indies early in the 1900s, five of which made one cent.

## Origin

**Meanings 1–3, 5, 7–10, 12–18** — Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- ("to split") is the root of both Proto-Germanic *bitô and *bitiz. These gave two Old English words, bite ("a bite, cut") and bita ("bit, fragment, morsel"), which became Middle English bitte and bite. The word is related to bite.
**Meanings 6, 11** — This is a form of bite (see that word). It took over from an older strong past tense, which was bāt in Old English and bot in Middle English.
**Meaning 4** — John Tukey made up the word in 1946 as a short form of binary digit, probably with the idea of a "small portion" in mind. Claude Shannon was the first to use it in print, in 1948. Byte and nybble play on food in a similar way.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/bit (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).