Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To come into contact with forcefully; strike: The car hit the guardrail.
- v. To reach with or as if with a blow: The bullet hit the police officer in the shoulder.
- v. To cause to come into contact: She hit her hand against the wall.
- v. To deal a blow to.
- v. To strike with a missile: fired and hit the target.
- v. To press or push (a key or button, for example): hit the return key by mistake.
- v. Sports To reach with a propelled ball or puck: hit the running back with a pass.
- v. Sports To score in this way: She hit the winning basket.
- v. Sports To perform (a shot or maneuver) successfully: couldn't hit the jump shot.
- v. Sports To propel with a stroke or blow: hit the ball onto the green.
- v. Baseball To execute (a base hit) successfully: hit a single.
- v. Baseball To bat against (a pitcher or kind of pitch) successfully: can't hit a slider.
- v. To affect, especially adversely: The company was hit hard by the recession. Influenza hit the elderly the hardest.
- v. To be affected by (a negative development): Their marriage hit a bad patch.
- v. Informal To win (a prize, for example), especially in a lottery.
- v. Informal To arise suddenly in the mind of; occur to: It finally hit him that she might be his long-lost sister.
- v. Informal To go to or arrive at: We hit the beach early.
- v. Informal To attain or reach: Monthly sales hit a new high. She hit 40 on her last birthday.
- v. To produce or represent accurately: trying to hit the right note.
- v. Games To deal cards to.
- v. Sports To bite on or take (bait or a lure). Used of a fish.
- v. To strike or deal a blow.
- v. To come into contact with something; collide.
- v. To attack: The raiders hit at dawn.
- v. To happen or occur: The storm hit without warning.
- v. To achieve or find something desired or sought: finally hit on the answer; hit upon a solution to the problem.
- v. Baseball To bat or bat well: Their slugger hasn't been hitting lately.
- v. Sports To score by shooting, especially in basketball: hit on 7 of 8 shots.
- v. To ignite a mixture of air and fuel in the cylinders. Used of an internal-combustion engine.
- n. A collision or impact.
- n. A successfully executed shot, blow, thrust, or throw.
- n. Sports A deliberate collision with an opponent, such as a body check in ice hockey.
- n. A successful or popular venture: a Broadway hit.
- n. Computer Science A match of data in a search string against data that one is searching.
- n. Computer Science A connection made to a website over the Internet or another network: Our company's website gets about 2,000 hits daily.
- n. An apt or effective remark.
- n. Baseball A base hit.
- n. Slang A dose of a narcotic drug.
- n. Slang A puff of a cigarette or a pipe.
- n. Slang A murder planned and carried out usually by a member of an underworld syndicate.
- hit on Slang To pay unsolicited and usually unwanted sexual attention to: can't go into a bar lately without being hit on.
- hit up Slang To approach and ask (someone) for something, especially for money: tried to hit me up for a loan.
- idiom. hit it big Slang To be successful: investors who hit it big on the stock market.
- idiom. hit it off Informal To get along well together.
- idiom. hit the books Informal To study, especially with concentrated effort.
- idiom. bottle Slang To engage in drinking alcoholic beverages.
- idiom. hit the bricks Slang To go on strike.
- idiom. hit the fan Slang To have serious, usually adverse consequences.
- idiom. hit the ground running Informal To begin a venture with great energy, involvement, and competence.
- idiom. hay Slang To go to bed: hit the hay well before midnight.
- idiom. points To direct attention to the most important points or places.
- idiom. hit the jackpot To become highly and unexpectedly successful, especially to win a great deal of money.
- idiom. hit the nail on the head To be absolutely right.
- idiom. hit the road Slang To set out, as on a trip; leave.
- idiom. roof Slang To express anger, especially vehemently.
- idiom. hit the spot To give total or desired satisfaction, as food or drink.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To strike or touch with some degree of force; give a stroke or blow to; especially, to strike intentionally.
- To knock; move by means of a hit, stroke, or blow.
- To reach or attain to in perception or execution; come at; light upon; lay hold of so as to reproduce or portray.
- To conform to; agree with; fit; suit: as, this hits my fancy.
- In backgammon: To take up (one of an opponent's men lying single or uncovered), by moving a man to its point.
- To beat when one's opponent has thrown off one or more men from the board.
- To represent or describe by characteristic strokes or touches.
- To come in forcible contact; strike; clash.
- To reach an intended point or object; effect an aim or purpose; succeed as by a stroke of skill or luck.
- To agree; suit; fit.
- To act in harmony; be of one mind.
- n. A stroke; a blow; the collision or impact of one body against another.
- n. In fencing, a stroke or touch with the sword or foil.
- n. A stroke of good luck; a casual or surprising success; a favorable effect or outcome: as, the play made a hit.
- n. A striking expression or turn of thought; a saying that goes to the point: as, a happy hit in a speech.
- n. A stroke of satire or sarcasm; a touch of censure.
- n. In backgammon: A move made by a player which puts one of his opponent's men for a time out of play and compels him to return to the original starting-place, A game won by a player after his opponent has thrown off one or more men from the board, as distinguished from a gammon and a backgammon.
- n. A good crop.
- The original form of neuter pronoun it. It is still found in dialectal use, but some-times (as in negro speech) it is rather an accidental reversion to than a survival of the original aspirated form. See
he and it.Chaucer. - A (Middle English) contracted form of hideth, third person singular present indicative of hide, verb
- n. In archery:
- n. The act of hitting the target.
- n. An arrow which hits the target. Usually a hit is scored according to its nearness to the center.
- n. In base-ball, a safe hit (see below); also, though not usually, any kind of stroke wherein the bat hits the ball.
Wiktionary
- pro. dialectal It.
- v. transitive To administer a blow to.
- v. transitive To come into contact with forcefully and suddenly.
- v. transitive, colloquial To briefly visit.
- v. transitive, informal To encounter.
- v. transitive, informal To reach or achieve.
- v. transitive To affect negatively.
- v. transitive, slang To kill a person, usually on the instructions of a third party.
- v. transitive, card games In blackjack, to deal a card to.
- v. intransitive, baseball To come up to bat.
- v. transitive, computing, programming To use; to connect to.
- v. transitive, US, slang To have sex with.
- v. transitive, US, slang To inhale an amount of smoke from a narcotic substance, particularly marijuana
- n. A blow; a punch.
- n. A success, especially in the entertainment industry.
- n. An attack on a location, person or people.
- n. computing (Internet) The result(s) of a search of a computer system or, for example, the entire Internet using a search engine
- n. Internet A measured visit to a web site, a request for a single file from a web server.
- n. An approximately correct answer in a test set.
- n. baseball The complete play, when the batter reaches base without the benefit of a walk, error, or fielder’s choice.
- n. colloquial A dose of an illegal or addictive drug.
- n. A premeditated murder done for criminal or political purposes.
GNU Webster's 1913
- pro. obsolete It.
- obsolete 3d pers. sing. pres. of hide, contracted from
hideth . - v. To reach with a stroke or blow; to strike or touch, usually with force; especially, to reach or touch (an object aimed at).
- v. To reach or attain exactly; to meet according to the occasion; to perform successfully; to attain to; to accord with; to be conformable to; to suit.
- v. To guess; to light upon or discover.
- v. (Backgammon) To take up, or replace by a piece belonging to the opposing player; -- said of a single unprotected piece on a point.
- v. To meet or come in contact; to strike; to clash; -- followed by
against oron . - v. To meet or reach what was aimed at or desired; to succeed, -- often with implied chance, or luck.
- n. A striking against; the collision of one body against another; the stroke that touches anything.
- n. A stroke of success in an enterprise, as by a fortunate chance; . A performance, as a musical recording, movie, or play, which achieved great popularity or acclaim; also used of books or objects of commerce which become big sellers.
- n. A peculiarly apt expression or turn of thought; a phrase which hits the mark.
- n. A game won at backgammon after the adversary has removed some of his men. It counts less than a
gammon . - n. (Baseball) A striking of the ball; ; -- sometimes used specifically for a
base hit . - n. An act of murder performed for hire, esp. by a professional assassin.
- adj. Having become very popular or acclaimed; -- said of entertainment performances.
WordNet 3.0
- v. produce by manipulating keys or strings of musical instruments, also metaphorically
- n. a connection made via the internet to another website
- v. hit against; come into sudden contact with
- v. consume to excess
- v. cause to experience suddenly
- n. a conspicuous success
- v. make a strategic, offensive, assault against an enemy, opponent, or a target
- n. the act of contacting one thing with another
- v. pay unsolicited and usually unwanted sexual attention to
- n. (baseball) a successful stroke in an athletic contest (especially in baseball)
- v. gain points in a game
- n. a dose of a narcotic drug
- v. reach a point in time, or a certain state or level
- v. affect or afflict suddenly, usually adversely
- n. (physics) a brief event in which two or more bodies come together
- v. hit with a missile from a weapon
- v. cause to move by striking
- n. a murder carried out by an underworld syndicate
- v. encounter by chance
- v. deal a blow to, either with the hand or with an instrument
- v. kill intentionally and with premeditation
- v. drive something violently into a location
- v. hit the intended target or goal
- v. reach a destination, either real or abstract
Etymologies
- From Middle English hitten ("to hit, strike, make contact with"), from Old English hittan ("to meet with, come upon, fall in with"), probably of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse hitta ("to strike, meet"), from Proto-Germanic *hitjanan (“to come upon, find”), from Proto-Indo-European *k(')eid- (“to fall, fall upon”). Cognate with Icelandic hitta ("to meet"), Danish hitte ("to find"), Latin caedō ("fall"), Albanian qit ("to hit, throw, pull out, release"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English hitten, from Old English hyttan, from Old Norse hitta. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Send lawyers, guns and money ... the $hit has hit the fan! by”
“Instead, we opened an Arabic Pandora's box and let the $hit hit the fan.”
“Send lawyers, guns and money ... the $hit is about to hit the fan! by”
“Looks like all that $hit she was talking about hit the fan … … … reply”
Offerpal Tries Out A New CEO. Shukla, Queen Of Scams, Is Out.
“Looks like all that $hit she was talking about hit the fan … … …. reply”
Offerpal Tries Out A New CEO. Shukla, Queen Of Scams, Is Out.
“Blizzard for the inauguration fits in perfectly with the $hit storm about to hit the country.”
“Patience is a virtue, but there appears to be very little time for the $hit to hit the fan, so if you truly care for your loved ones and humanity, you better start getting involved, because there is the very real possibility that lack of care and action will find many casualties that might involve you, your family, friends, neighbors, etc.”
“Ladies and Gentlemen, the $hit has hit the proverbial fan, Sibel Edmonds is dropping dimes like a broken parking meter.”
“I also find it convenient that the "$hit hit the fan" as we embark on the final stretch of the current election for President.”
“The title hit a chord with me because I suffer from professional jealously.”
Kristine Kathryn Rusch » Freelancer’s Survival Guide: Professional Jealousy
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘hit’.
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Hockey
As the playoffs are on, some Hockey terms, and likely some Canadianisms in here.
face off, playoff beard, playoff, faceoff, bodycheck, hipcheck, icing, pass, facemask, stick, puck, Peter Puck and 182 more...
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EN - 3-letter words of the pattern CVC
With the exception of abbreviations and mosaic words all types of words (proper names, past tense of verbs, etc.) are allowed.
for, was, not, his, but, has, had, can, her, him, new, now and 339 more...
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Public List: Two by Fives
This is an experiment in public lists--something I've been thinking about for some time. The goal is to create a collection of short, powerful, evocative words.
This is an open list. A...icy, howl, hymn, thorn, fire, vile, mist, blunt, scum, dark, shot, gleam and 221 more...
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Curling, The Roaring Game
Terms and phrases associated with the game and sport of curling.
hack, tee, hogscore, hatch, trigger, stone, end, sweeper, broom, curling sheet, hog line, centre line and 288 more...
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gangster
random gangster lingo and street slang with extra absurdities.
( open list, randomness )
related:
http://www....swagga, chinga, slams, blitzy, earf, manor, code name, rekkid, weight, feather, kong, swisher and 323 more...
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Especially
Being a list of words which have "especially" in their definitions.
wringing-machine, especially, device, field, scrip, hit, catch, take, buck, flip, effluvium, proselyte and 107 more...
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The Pain of Texting
Words that are a pain in the ass to type in on a numerical keypad on a cell phone because they have consecutive letters that share the same button:
2 - ABC
3 - DEF
4 - GHI...defcon, hi, no, attitude, xylophone, on, monday, monkey, mono, dig, back, babble and 212 more...
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SEDE - military operations
Iran-Iraq War, prevention, increase of readi..., replacement of wa..., rise of readiness, stabilisation, build up, basic training, defence procurement, force modernisation, full mobilisation, grueling training and 387 more...
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3-letter Scrabble Words
aah, aal, aas, aba, abo, abs, aby, ace, act, add, ado, ads and 995 more...
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3 Letter Words
A list of English words that are three letters long.
ace, act, ade, ado, add, ads, age, ago, ail, air, aim, all and 397 more...
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Words Heard Too Often In Songs
Words overused in modern pop music.
Also see ruzuzu's list: Words that should be heard in songs more often.love, heart, dance, dancefloor, down, take, want, night, fight, baby, like, ooooh and 136 more...
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EN-HU - homographs
Words that are spelt the same way in English and in Hungarian but have independent origins and mean something entirely different. Not included are proper names (Anya, Ken, Pete - Kiss, Soma, Vince,...
ember, hat, eleven, tag, bolt, far, comb, barack, kit, bent, kin, tan and 41 more...
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Computers changed everything
Words that were well established before they gained special use in computing systems.
server, protocol, interface, bug, spam, virus, mouse, program, hack, chip, drive, window and 61 more...
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Past tense in -t.
Some words are always like this. Some only when British or archaic. Some are just fun.
built, spent, bent, spilt, spoilt, ruint, thought, caught, brought, wisht, pent, spelt and 74 more...
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Instant List
Things that are instant.
noodles, messenger, coffee, approval, breakfast, camera, attraction, espresso, eye lift, facelift, film, gratification and 26 more...
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Words that hurt
A collection of words that inflict pain. If you liked this, check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunch_Money_(game)
jab, headbutt, headlock, choke, elbow, grab, kick, slap, roundhouse, spinning backfist, stomp, uppercut and 40 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for hit.

albertoprb idiom. hit it big Slang To be successful: investors who hit it big on the stock market.
Mar 2, 2013
gulyasrobi "hit" in Hungarian means: faith, belief Aug 1, 2012
thomas_hinkle "hit" has a relatively recent use meaning "to have sex with" (see http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=hit). I came here hoping to see some clue as to how recent that word is. Jun 27, 2009
shevek n. (funk) An accent from outside the groove. Sep 29, 2008