tit

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The form most akin to our blue tit is the azure tit of Central Asia (Parus azureus); the Parus ledouci of Algeria is very near our coal tit, and the Parus lugubris of South-Eastern Europe and Asia Minor is nearest to our marsh tit.

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Definitions (33)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun A titmouse.
  2. noun Any of various small, similar or related birds.
  3. adjective New England & Upstate New York Small; undersized.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (23)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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Examples (50)

  • Well, after some more talk and getting the comics, she says suddenly to me, "Your tit is showing!" —  Screw Bronze!
  • However, the recent run of mild winters (with the exception of 2009) has produced a population boom, and in this year's Big Garden Birdwatch, run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the long-tailed tit was the 10th commonest bird seen in gardens across the country - almost double the previous number. —  The Independent - Frontpage RSS Feed
  • However, in our situation, we have applied negotiation not only as a tit-for-tat tactic but as an important part of the ideological and political line to develop people's war qualitatively. —  Kasama
  • If we are going for a tit-for-tat argument, how about this one: throughout history, many political regimes have murdered thousands upon thousands-even millions upon millions-of their own citizens; in fact, throughout the world, there are governments beating up, starving and killing their own citizens-governments do it all the time. —  The Devil's Kitchen
  • In an early scene, Jolie, as the tit-ular doomed supermodel, jumps around against a chain link fence buck-naked intertwining her fingers with her soon-to-be-girlfriend Linda. —  We Heart Gossip: The hottest celebrity gossip news - hearted or hated by you!
 

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Etymologies (8)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Short for titmouse. Adj., Middle English tit-, as in titmose, titmouse; see titmouse.
  2. Middle English, from Old English titt.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (6)

  1. Also tet; from (a) Middle English tit, titte, tette, from Anglo-Saxon tit (titt-) =Middle Dutch titte =Middle Low German Low German titte =Middle High German G. zitze (cf. Swedish tisse, from G.?); mixed in English with (b) English teat, from Middle English tete, from Old French tete, tette, French tette (also teton, tettin) =Spanish Portuguese tetta =Italian tetta (also zitta, cizza, zezzolo), teat (cf. French teter =Spanish tetar =Italian tettare, suckle); root unknown. (c) Cf. Old High German tuttā tutā, tutto, tuto, Middle High German tutte, tute, diminutive tütel, teat; Icelandic tāta, teat; Welsh didi, did, teat; Greek τιτθός, τίτθη, teat. The relations of these last forms are uncertain.
  2. from Middle English *tit (found only in comp.: see titmouse), from Icelandic tittr, a little bird, =Norwegian tita, a little bird (cf. Icelandic titlingr, later English titling); perhaps connected with tit, ‘a small thing.’ The word appears also in titlark, titling, titmouse, and terminally in tomtit, bottle-tit, coal-tit, thrush-tit, wren-tit, and other names.
  3. Early modern English also titt; apparently orig. ‘something small.’ Cf. tit, titty. Cf. also tot.
  4. In the phrase tit for tat, a variation of tip for tap : see under tip, n. Tit and tat in this phrase are in themselves meaningless; the phrase is often written with hyphens, tit-for-tat, and indeed is better so written, being practically one word.
  5. from Middle English titten, tytten, origin obscure; cf. tight, v.
  6. from Middle English titte; from tit, v.
 

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/tɪt/
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