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. 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. 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. A prison sentence.
9. n. An excerpt of material from a composition or show.
10. n. A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.
11. n. The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.
12. n. Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values.
13. adv. To a small extent; in a small amount (usually with "a").
14. v. Simple past of bite.

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. the smallest unit of information, equivalent to a choice between two alternatives, as yes or no; on or off.
13. 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. 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