tit

Definitions  ·  Examples  ·  Pronunciations  ·  Etymologies  ·  Related  ·  Statistics  ·  Comments (4)  · 
“
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.

View all »
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.
3 more from this dictionary »

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (23)

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

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

Toggle elsewhere links Elsewhere on the web

View all »
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!
More examples »
 

Tags

Sign up or sign in to add tags.

Stats

This word has been looked up 313 times.

stop updating
On Twitter

Photos from

flickr images

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.
 

Pronunciations
Record your own »
/tɪt/
by American Heritage

Charts
frequency chart

Bubble size: how much this word was used in a year

Bubble height: used more or less than expected, vs. all uses evenly distributed

You can expect to see this word about twice a month.

Recently looked up

tit · casualness · consulates · canyon · rationality

Recent Favorites

pygopagus · sanglant · Astacus · sweetbread · qualms

Recent Pronunciations

qualms · poofter · oh for heaven's sake · embodies · silence