bit

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A small portion, degree, or amount: a bit of lint; a bit of luck.
2. n. A brief amount of time; a moment: Wait a bit.
3. n. A short scene or episode in a theatrical performance.
4. n. A bit part.
5. n. An entertainment routine given regularly by a performer; an act.
6. n. Informal A particular kind of action, situation, or behavior: got tired of the macho bit.
7. n. Informal A matter being considered: What's this bit about inflation?
8. n. Informal An amount equal to one eighth of a dollar: two bits.
9. n. Chiefly British A small coin: a threepenny bit.
10. idiom. a bit To a small degree; somewhat: a bit warm.
11. idiom. bit by bit Little by little; gradually.
12. idiom. do (one's) bit To do one's part or contribute one's share.
13. n. The sharp part of a tool, such as the cutting edge of a knife or ax.
14. n. A pointed and threaded tool for drilling and boring that is secured in a brace, bitstock, or drill press.
15. n. The part of a key that enters the lock and engages the bolt and tumblers.
16. n. The tip of the mouthpiece on a pipe or a cigarette or cigar holder.
17. n. The metal mouthpiece of a bridle, serving to control, curb, and direct an animal.
18. n. Something that controls, guides, or curbs.
19. v. To place a bit in the mouth of (a horse, for example).
20. v. To check or control with or as if with a bit.
21. v. To make or grind a bit on (a key).
22. idiom. have To be uncontrollable; cast off restraint.
23. n. Computer Science A fundamental unit of information having just two possible values, as either of the binary digits 0 or 1.
24. v. Past tense and a past participle of bite.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of biting; a bite.
2. n. The action of biting food; eating; grazing.
3. n. The biting, cutting, or penetrating action of an edged weapon or tool.
4. n. The biting, catching, holding, cutting, or boring part of a tool. Specifically— The cutting blade of an ax, hatchet, plane, drill, etc.
5. n. A boring-tool used in a carpenter's brace. Bits are of various kinds, and are applied in a variety of ways. The similar tool used for metal, and applied by the drill-bow, ratchet, brace, lathe, or drilling-machine, is termed a drill, or drill-bit. See auger, borer, drill, center-bit, gouge-bit, quill-bit, rose-bit, shell-bit, spoon-bit, and phrases below.
6. n. The metal part of a bridle which is inserted in the mouth of a horse, with the appendages (rings, etc.) to which the reins are fastened.
7. n. The joint of an umbrella.
8. n. A hammer used by masons for dressing granite and for rough picking.
9. n. In music, a short piece of tube used to alter slightly the pitch of such wind-instruments as the trumpet, cornet-à-pistons, etc.
10. To put a bridle upon; put the bit in the mouth of (a horse); accustom to the bit; hence, to curb; restrain.
11. n. A portion of food bitten off; a mouthful; a bite.
12. n. A morsel or a little piece of food.
13. n. Hence A small quantity of food; a modicum or moderate supply of provisions: as, to take a bit and a sup.
14. n. A small piece or fragment of anything; a small portion or quantity; a little: as, a bit of glass; a bit of land; a bit of one's mind. The word is often used in certain phrases expressive of extent or degree; thus, “a bit older” means somewhat older, older to some extent; “not a bit,” not a whit, not in any degree; “a good bit older,” a good deal older; “a bit of a humorist,” somewhat of a humorist, etc. It is used depreciatingly or compassionately: as, a little bit of a man; bits of children, that is, poor little children.
15. n. Crisis; nick of time.
16. n. A small piece of ground; a spot.
17. n. Any small coin: as, a fourpenny-bit; a six-penny-bit. Specifically, the name of a small West Indian coin worth about 10 cents; also, in parts of the United States, of a silver coin formerly current (in some States called a Mexican shilling), of the value of 12½ cents; now, chiefly in the West, the sum of 12½ cents.
18. n. Synonyms Scrap, fragment, morsel, particle, atom.
19. n. Preterit and occasional past participle of bite.
20. n. A Middle English and Anglo-Saxon contraction of biddeth, third person singular indicative present of bid.
21. n. An obsolete spelling of bitt.
22. n. A Middle English form of butt.
23. n. In mining: The cutting edge of a drill for boring rock by hand or by machine drilling.
24. n. A sharpened steel bar used for drilling rock by hand or by machine. A chisel-bit has a simple cutting edge, a cross-bit has two cutting edges crossing each other at right angles; similarly the X-bit, the L-bit, the horseshoe-bit, and the crown-bit have cutting edges disposed as indicated by the several names.
25. n. In ceramics, a small piece of stone for separating the pieces of pottery in the kiln: used before the invention of stilts, cock-spurs, and triangles. Ware so made was called bit-stone ware.

Wiktionary

1. n. A piece of metal placed in a horse's mouth and connected to reins to direct the animal.
2. n. A rotary cutting tool fitted to a drill, used to make holes.
3. n. US An eighth of a dollar. Note that there is no coin minted worth 12.5 cents. (When this term first came into use, the Spanish 8 reales coin was widely used as a dollar equivalent, and thus the 1 real coin was equivalent to 12.5 cents.)
4. n. dated, UK A coin of a specified value. (Also used for a nine-pence coin in the British Caribbean.)
5. n. A small amount of something.
6. n. Specifically, a small amount of time.
7. n. : A portion of something.
8. n. slang A prison sentence, especially a short one.
9. n. An excerpt of material from a composition or show.
10. adv. To a small extent; in a small amount (usually with "a").
11. v. Simple past of bite.
12. v. US, informal (UK, archaic) Past participle of bite
13. adj. this sense?) (colloquial) bitten.
14. adj. Having been bitten.
15. n. mathematics, computing A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.
16. n. computing The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.
17. n. information theory, cryptography Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values.
18. n. information theory A unit of measure for information entropy.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The part of a bridle, usually of iron, which is inserted in the mouth of a horse, and having appendages to which the reins are fastened.
2. n. Fig.: Anything which curbs or restrains.
3. n. In the British West Indies, a fourpenny piece, or groat.
4. v. To put a bridle upon; to put the bit in the mouth of.
5. imp. & p. p. of bite.
6. n. A part of anything, such as may be bitten off or taken into the mouth; a morsel; a bite. Hence: A small piece of anything; a little; a mite.
7. n. Somewhat; something, but not very great.
8. n. A tool for boring, of various forms and sizes, usually turned by means of a brace or bitstock. See Bitstock.
9. n. The part of a key which enters the lock and acts upon the bolt and tumblers.
10. n. The cutting iron of a plane.
11. n. In the Southern and Southwestern States, a small silver coin (as the real) formerly current; commonly, one worth about 12 1/2 cents; also, the sum of 12 1/2 cents.
12. (Computers) the smallest unit of information, equivalent to a choice between two alternatives, as yes or no; on or off.
13. (Computers) the physical representation of a bit of information in a computer memory or a data storage medium. Within a computer circuit a bit may be represented by the state of a current or an electrical charge; in a magnetic storage medium it may be represented by the direction of magnetization; on a punched card or on paper tape it may be represented by the presence or absence of a hole at a particular point on the card or tape.
14. obsolete 3d sing. pr. of bid, for biddeth.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. a small fragment
2. n. a small piece or quantity of something
3. n. an indefinitely short time
4. n. a unit of measurement of information (from binary + digit); the amount of information in a system having two equiprobable states
5. n. the part of a key that enters a lock and lifts the tumblers
6. n. the cutting part of a drill; usually pointed and threaded and is replaceable in a brace or bitstock or drill press
7. n. a small amount of solid food; a mouthful
8. n. piece of metal held in horse's mouth by reins and used to control the horse while riding
9. n. an instance of some kind
10. n. a short theatrical performance that is part of a longer program
11. n. a small fragment of something broken off from the whole