hits

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of hit.

   Her latest album is packed with catchy hits.

   The boxer landed several solid hits in the third round.

   Note

   The same -s serves every sense of the noun, so context alone decides whether hits are blows landed, chart successes, attacks on a target, or correct guesses in Battleship. The figurative sense counts too. A company that takes several hits in a year has suffered damaging setbacks, not physical blows.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of hit.

   The pitcher hits the strike zone with remarkable accuracy.

   Cold weather hits the region hard every winter.

   Note

   Because hit stays the same in the past tense and past participle, this -s is one of the few endings that shows the time: he hits the ball now, he hit it yesterday. It carries every sense of the verb, including the slang one of killing on someone's orders, so a gang that hits a rival has committed murder, not thrown a punch.

3. 3
   determinerdialectal

   Alternative form of its. Dialectal.

   The cabin had lost hits roof in the gale.

   Every creature defends hits young against a threat.

   Note

   A dialect spelling of the possessive, keeping the initial h- that standard English dropped when unstressed hit wore down to it. It works exactly like its, standing before a noun with no apostrophe: hits roof, hits young. Outside dialect writing, use its. On the page, hits is easily misread as the plural of a blow or as the verb in she hits.

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