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  1. nit love

Definitions

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. n. The egg or young of a parasitic insect, such as a louse.
  2. n. A unit of illuminative brightness equal to one candle per square meter, measured perpendicular to the rays of the source.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. n. The egg of a louse or some similar insect.
  2. n. A small spot, speck, or protuberance.
  3. n. In mining. See knit, 3.
  4. n. A small insect; a gnat or fly: applied contemptuously to persons.
  5. No; not; not at all.

Wiktionary

  1. n. A candela per square meter.
  2. n. The egg of a louse.
  3. n. A young louse.
  4. n. slang A fool, a nitwit.
  5. n. A nitpicker

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. n. (Zoöl.) The egg of a louse or other small insect.

WordNet 3.0

  1. n. a luminance unit equal to 1 candle per square meter measured perpendicular to the rays from the source
  2. n. egg or young of an insect parasitic on mammals especially a sucking louse; often attached to a hair or item of clothing

Etymologies

  1. Middle English nite, from Old English hnitu, from Proto-Germanic *hnitō (cf. Dutch neet, German Nisse, Norwegian nit), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱ(o)nid- (cf. Scottish Gaelic sneadh, Lithuanian glìnda, Polish gnida, Albanian thëri, Ancient Greek κονίς (konís)) (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English, from Old English hnitu.From Latin nitor, brightness, from nitēre, to shine. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)

Examples

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hypernyms (2)

Words that are more generic or abstract

  1. luminance unit
  1. egg

same context (18)

Words that are found in similar contexts

  1. berhaupt
  2. erholt
  3. meer
  1. vor
  2. neuste
  3. piace
  1. leider
  2. Tex.
  3. croprocessor
  1. fam'ly
  2. denn
  3. recht
  1. vioxx
  2. fine-tooth
  3. siger
  1. doch
  2. seyn
  3. quickstep

rhymes (63)

Words with the same terminal sound

  1. Brit
  2. Grit
  3. Kit
  4. Pitt
  5. Pritt
  6. Schlitt
  7. Schmidt
  8. Split
  9. Whit
  10. Witt
  11. Witte
  12. acquit
  1. admit
  2. befit
  3. bit
  4. brit
  5. britt
  6. chit
  7. commit
  8. dewitt
  9. emit
  10. fit
  11. fitt
  12. flit
  1. get
  2. grit
  3. hit
  4. it
  5. kit
  6. kitt
  7. knit
  8. laffitte
  9. lafitte
  10. legit
  11. lit
  12. litt
  1. mit
  2. mitt
  3. obit
  4. omit
  5. permit
  6. pit
  7. plitt
  8. quit
  9. readmit
  10. recommit
  11. refit
  12. remit
  1. resubmit
  2. shit
  3. sit
  4. skit
  5. slit
  6. smit
  7. spit
  8. split
  9. submit
  10. tit
  11. transmit
  12. unfit
  1. whit
  2. wit
  3. writ

reverse dictionary (5)

Words that contain this word in their definition

  1. neet
  1. slough-grass
  1. nit grass
  1. gastridium
  1. knit

tags (2)

Free-form, user-generated categorization

  1. backword
  1. cvc

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Lists

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Comments

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  • madmouth it was Vulturo--whose name just came back to me--and I like to think he means far worse than 'nitwit' Nov 25, 2009

  • bilby How do we know the Birdman's usage isn't just apocope of nitwit, of itself probably with no lousy pedigree? Nov 25, 2009

  • madmouth "I was in Zurich last week, you nit!"
    -Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law

    It's a pity this corollary to the "louse" insult didn't come in til the 21st century. I, for one, plan to use it at the earliest opportunity. Nov 25, 2009

  • oroboros Tin in reverse. Nov 2, 2007

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‘nit’ has been looked up 3852 times, loved by 1 person, added to 13 lists, commented on 4 times, and has a Scrabble score of 3.