hit

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word hit. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word hit, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say hit in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word hit you have here. The definition of the word hit will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofhit, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: Hit, HIT, hít, and -hit

Translingual

Symbol

hit

  1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for Hittite.

English

 hit on Wikipedia

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /hɪt/
  • (file)
  • Rhymes: -ɪt

Etymology 1

From Middle English hitten (to hit, strike, make contact with), from Old English hittan (to meet with, come upon, fall in with), from Old Norse hitta (to strike, meet), from Proto-Germanic *hittijaną (to come upon, find), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eyd- (to fall; fall upon; hit; cut; hew).

Cognate with Icelandic hitta (to meet), Danish hitte (to find), Latin caedō (to kill), Albanian qit (to hit, throw, pull out, release).

Verb

hit (third-person singular simple present hits, present participle hitting, simple past hit or (dialectal, obsolete) hat or (rare, dialectal) het, past participle hit or (archaic, rare, dialectal) hitten)

Two boxers hitting each other
  1. (heading, physical) To strike.
    1. (transitive) To administer a blow to, directly or with a weapon or missile.
      One boy hit the other.
      • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter II, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., , →OCLC:
        Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.
      • 1922-1927, Frank Harris, My Life and Loves:
        He tried to hit me but I dodged the blow and went out to plot revenge.
      • 1922 February, James Joyce, “Episode 15”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, , →OCLC:
        Bello: (Shouts) Good, by the rumping jumping general! That's the best bit of news I heard these six weeks. Here, don't keep me waiting, damn you! (He slaps her face)
        Bello: (Whimpers) You're after hitting me. I'll tell []
      • 1934, Robert E. Howard, The Slugger's Game:
        I hunted him for half a hour, aiming to learn him to hit a man with a table-leg and then run, but I didn't find him.
    2. (transitive) To come into contact with forcefully and suddenly.
      The ball hit the fence.
      • 1726 October 28, [Jonathan Swift], Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. , volume I, London: Benj Motte, , →OCLC, part II (A Voyage to Brobdingnag):
        a dozen apples, each of them near as large as a Bristol barrel, came tumbling about my ears; one of them hit me on the back as I chanced to stoop, and knocked me down flat on my face.
      • 1882, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Doctor Grimshawe's Secret: A romance:
        Meanwhile the street boys kept up a shower of mud balls, many of which hit the Doctor, while the rest were distributed upon his assailants.
    3. (intransitive) To strike against something.
      • a. 1705, John Locke, “An Examination of P[ère] Malebranche’s Opinion of Seeing All Things in God”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: , London: A and J Churchill, , published 1706, →OCLC:
        If bodies be extension alone, [] how can they move and hit one against another?
    4. (transitive) To activate a button or key by pressing and releasing it.
      Hit the Enter key to continue.
    5. (transitive, slang) To kill a person, usually on the instructions of a third party.
      Hit him tonight and throw the body in the river.
      • 1973, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II (screenplay, second draft)
        FREDO: Mikey, why would they ever hit poor old Frankie Five-Angels? I loved that ole sonuvabitch.
    6. (transitive, military) To attack, especially amphibiously.
      If intelligence had been what it should have been, I don't think we'd ever have hit that island.
    7. (figurative, transitive, intransitive) To affect someone, as if dealing a blow to that person.
      Their coffee really hits the spot.
      I used to listen to that song all the time, but it hits different(ly) now.
  2. (transitive) To manage to touch (a target) in the right place.
    I hit the jackpot.
    Antonym: miss
  3. (transitive, colloquial) To switch on.
    Antonyms: cut, kill
    Somebody's been here! Hit the lights!
  4. (transitive, colloquial) To briefly visit.
    We hit the grocery store on the way to the park.
  5. (transitive, informal) To encounter an obstacle or other difficulty.
    You'll hit some nasty thunderstorms if you descend too late.
    We hit a lot of traffic coming back from the movies.
  6. (heading) To attain, to achieve.
    1. (transitive, informal) To reach or achieve.
      The movie hits theaters in December.
      The temperature could hit 110°F tomorrow.
      We hit Detroit at one in the morning but kept driving through the night.
      • 2012 August 1, Owen Gibson, “London 2012: rowers Glover and Stanning win Team GB's first gold medal”, in Guardian Unlimited:
        And her success with Glover, a product of the National Lottery-funded Sporting Giants talent identification programme, will also spark relief among British officials who were starting to fret a little about hitting their target of equalling fourth in the medal table from Beijing.
    2. (intransitive) To meet or reach what was aimed at or desired; to succeed, often by luck.
    3. To guess; to light upon or discover.
  7. (transitive) To affect negatively.
    The economy was hit by a recession.  The hurricane hit his fishing business hard.
  8. (figuratively) To attack.
    • 2016 March 3, Nick Gass, quoting Donald Trump, “Trump on small hands: 'I guarantee you there's no problem'”, in Politico:
      I have to say this, he hit my hands. Nobody has ever hit my hands. I’ve never heard of this one. Look at those hands. Are they small hands?
  9. (heading, games) To make a play.
    1. (transitive, card games) In blackjack, to deal a card to.
      Hit me.
    2. (intransitive, baseball) To come up to bat.
      Jones hit for the pitcher.
    3. (backgammon) To take up, or replace by a piece belonging to the opposing player; said of a single unprotected piece on a point.
  10. (transitive, computing, programming) To use; to connect to.
    The external web servers hit DBSRV7, but the internal web server hits DBSRV3.
  11. (transitive, US, slang) To have sex with.
    I'd hit that!
  12. (transitive, US, slang) To inhale an amount of smoke from a narcotic substance, particularly marijuana.
    • 2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG:
      Tastes like fruit when you hit it; got to have bread to get it.
  13. (transitive, bodybuilding) (of an exercise) to affect, to work a body part.
    This is another great exercise which hits the long head.
  14. (transitive, bodybuilding) to work out
    With that said, the group hitting their legs just once a week still made gains.
Synonyms
Antonyms
  • (manage to touch in the right place): miss
Derived terms
Terms derived from hit (verb)
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Noun

hit (plural hits)

  1. A blow; a punch; a striking against; the collision of one body against another; the stroke that touches anything.
    The hit was very slight.
  2. Something very successful, such as a song, film, or video game, that receives widespread recognition and acclaim.
    • 1848, “Her Majesty's Theatre”, in The Musical World, volume 23:
      Marie Taglioni was another hit for Her Majesty's Theatre last season, and will be a hit again this season []
    • 2012 February 9, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Review: Chico & Rita”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name):
      Chico & Rita opens in the modern era, as an aged, weary Chico shines shoes in his native Cuba. Then a song heard on the radio—a hit he wrote and recorded with Rita in their youth—carries him back to 1948 Havana, where they first met.
  3. An attack on a location, person or people.
  4. A collision of a projectile with the target.
    • 2022 January 12, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43:
      But signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater.
    1. In the game of Battleship, a correct guess at where one's opponent ship is.
  5. (computing, Internet) A match found by searching a computer system or search engine
  6. (Internet) A measured visit to a web site, a request for a single file from a web server.
    My site received twice as many hits after being listed in a search engine.
  7. An approximately correct answer in a test set.
  8. (baseball) The complete play, when the batter reaches base without the benefit of a walk, error, or fielder’s choice.
    The catcher got a hit to lead off the fifth.
  9. (colloquial) A dose of an illegal or addictive drug.
    Where am I going to get my next hit?
  10. A premeditated murder done for criminal or political purposes.
    • 2023 August 30, Megan K. Stack, Rob Stothard, “He Was Shot 14 Times at the Dinner Table. His Children Want to Know if Britain Ordered the Hit.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:
      The questions that have always haunted the family — who ordered the hit, and why, and who in London might have known — remain unanswered.
  11. (dated) A peculiarly apt expression or turn of thought; a phrase which hits the mark.
    a happy hit
  12. (backgammon) A move that throws one of the opponent's men back to the entering point.
  13. (backgammon) A game won after the adversary has removed some of his men. It counts for less than a gammon.
Antonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
  • Catalan: hit
  • Czech: hit
  • Danish: hit
  • French: hit
  • Dutch: hit
  • Japanese: ヒット (hitto)
  • Polish: hit
  • Portuguese: hit
  • Russian: хит (xit)
  • Spanish: hit
  • Swedish: hit
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Adjective

hit (not comparable)

  1. Very successful.
    The band played their hit song to the delight of the fans.

Etymology 2

From Middle English hit (it), from Old English hit (it), from Proto-Germanic *hit (this, this one), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (this, here). Cognate with Dutch het (it). More at it. Note 'it.

Pronoun

hit (subjective and objective hit, reflexive and intensive hitself, possessive adjective and noun hits)

  1. (dialectal) It.
    • 1922, Philip Gengembre Hubert, The Atlantic monthly, volume 130:
      But how hit was to come about didn't appear.
    • 1998, Nancy A. Walker, What's so funny?: humor in American culture:
      Now, George, grease it good, an' let hit slide down the hill hits own way.
Derived terms

References

Anagrams

Alemannic German

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old High German hiutu, from hiu +‎ tagu, a calque of Latin hodie. Cognate with German heute, Dutch heden.

Pronunciation

Adverb

hit

  1. (Alsatian) today
    Hit isch dr Jean-Pierre so drüri.Jean-Pierre is so sad today.

Catalan

Etymology

From English hit.

Pronunciation

Noun

hit m (plural hits)

  1. hit (something very successful)
    Synonym: èxit
    • 2020 February 6, Time Out Barcelona, volume 583, page 8, column Sèries:
      Us passareu els capítols amb el Shazam obert buscant els hits que sonen.
      You'll spend the episodes with Shazam open, searching for the hits that play.

References

Chamorro

Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *(i-)kita, from Proto-Austronesian *(i-)kita. Doublet of ta.

Pronunciation

Pronoun

hit

  1. we, us (inclusive)

Usage notes

See also

References

  • Donald M. Topping (1973) Chamorro Reference Grammar, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.

Chinese

Etymology

From English hit.

Pronunciation

Adjective

hit

  1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) hit; popular; hot

Czech

Etymology

From English hit.

Pronunciation

Noun

hit m inan

  1. hit (a success, especially in the entertainment industry)
    Synonym: šlágr

Declension

Danish

Etymology

From English hit.

Pronunciation

Noun

hit n (singular definite hittet, plural indefinite hit or hits)

  1. hit (something very successful)

Declension

Further reading

Dutch

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Borrowed from English hit.

Noun

hit m (plural hits, diminutive hitje n)

  1. A hit song, a very popular and successful song.
  2. (by extension) A success, something popular and successful (especially in the entertainment industry).
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Shortening of Hitlander (Shetlander).

Noun

hit m (plural hitten, diminutive hitje n or hitske n)

  1. (dated) A Shetland pony.
  2. (dated, regional) Any pony or small horse.
Derived terms

French

Noun

hit m (plural hits)

  1. hit (popular song)
  2. hit (success)

Hokkien

For pronunciation and definitions of hit – see (“that; those; he; she; it; etc.”).
(This term is the pe̍h-ōe-jī form of ).

Hungarian

Etymology

From the stem of hisz (to believe) +‎ -t (noun-forming suffix).

Pronunciation

Noun

hit (plural hitek)

  1. faith, belief
  2. (archaic) oath, word of honour (e.g. in hitves and hitet tesz)

Declension

Inflection (stem in -e-, front unrounded harmony)
singular plural
nominative hit hitek
accusative hitet hiteket
dative hitnek hiteknek
instrumental hittel hitekkel
causal-final hitért hitekért
translative hitté hitekké
terminative hitig hitekig
essive-formal hitként hitekként
essive-modal
inessive hitben hitekben
superessive hiten hiteken
adessive hitnél hiteknél
illative hitbe hitekbe
sublative hitre hitekre
allative hithez hitekhez
elative hitből hitekből
delative hitről hitekről
ablative hittől hitektől
non-attributive
possessive - singular
hité hiteké
non-attributive
possessive - plural
hitéi hitekéi
Possessive forms of hit
possessor single possession multiple possessions
1st person sing. hitem hiteim
2nd person sing. hited hiteid
3rd person sing. hite hitei
1st person plural hitünk hiteink
2nd person plural hitetek hiteitek
3rd person plural hitük hiteik

Derived terms

Compound words with this term at the beginning
Compound words with this term at the end
Expressions

Further reading

  • hit in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

Jamaican Creole

Alternative forms

  • it (dialectal spelling)
    • i (dialectal pronunciation spelling)

Etymology

From Jamaican Creole it, from English it

IPA(key): /hɪt/

Noun

hit n

  1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Lashi

Pronunciation

Adverb

hit

  1. here

Determiner

hit

  1. this

References

  • Hkaw Luk (2017) A grammatical sketch of Lacid, Chiang Mai: Payap University (master thesis)

Limburgish

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Dutch hit, from English hit.

Noun

hit f

  1. (slang, Dutch) something popular (book, song, band, country)

Usage notes

Slang. Mainly used when speaking Dutch, rather than in real Limburgish. Overall speaking, Limburgish is more conservative, therefore slaag is more often used.

Inflection

Inflection
Root singular Root plural Diminutive singular Diminutive plural
Nominative hit hits hitje hitjes
Genitive hit hits hitjes hitjes
Locative hittes hitteser hitteske hitteskes
Dative¹²
Accusative¹²
  • Dative and accusative are nowadays obsolete, use nominative instead.
  • The dative got out of use around 1900. As this is a recent loanword, there is no conjugation for it to be found.

Middle Dutch

Pronunciation

Pronoun

hit

  1. Alternative form of het

Middle English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Old English hit, from Proto-West Germanic *hit, from Proto-Germanic *hit (this, this one), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (this, here).

Pronunciation

Pronoun

hit (accusative hit, genitive hit, his, possessive determiner hit, his)

  1. Third-person singular neuter pronoun: it
  2. Sometimes used in reference to a child or man: he, she
  3. Third-person singular neuter accusative pronoun: it
  4. Third-person singular neuter genitive pronoun: its
  5. (impersonal, placeholder) Third-person singular impersonal placeholder pronoun: it

Descendants

See also

Determiner

hit (nominative pronoun hit)

  1. Third-person singular neuter possessive determiner: it

References

Norwegian Bokmål

Etymology

From Middle Norwegian hít. Compare Swedish hit.

Pronunciation

Adverb

hit

  1. here (to this place), hither
    Kom hit!
    Come here!

References

Norwegian Nynorsk

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

From Middle Norwegian hít. Compare Swedish hit.

Adverb

hit

  1. here (to this place), hither
    Kom hit!
    Come here!
Derived terms

Etymology 2

From Old Norse hít. Compare Faroese hít (condom).

Noun

hit f (definite singular hita, indefinite plural hiter, definite plural hitene)

  1. a leather bag (usually made from a hide in a single piece)
  2. (dialectal, derogatory) used of a woman, especially in compounds
Derived terms

References

  • “hit” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.
  • “hit”, in Norsk Ordbok: ordbok over det norske folkemålet og det nynorske skriftmålet, Oslo: Samlaget, 1950-2016

Old Dutch

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hit.

Pronoun

hit

  1. it

Alternative forms

Descendants

  • Middle Dutch: het
    • Dutch: het (only the pronoun; the definite article is a weakened form of dat)
    • Limburgish: hèt

Further reading

  • hit”, in Oudnederlands Woordenboek, 2012

Old English

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Germanic *hit (this, this one), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (this, here). Cognate with Old Frisian hit (it), Old High German iz (it), Gothic 𐌷𐌹𐍄𐌰 (hita, it). More at .

Pronunciation

Pronoun

hit n (accusative hit, genitive his, dative him)

  1. it

Declension


Descendants

Old Norse

Etymology

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Article

hit

  1. neuter nominative/accusative singular of hinn

Declension

Old Welsh

Etymology

From Proto-Celtic *siti- (length).

Conjunction

hit

  1. until

Descendants

Polish

Etymology

Borrowed from English hit, from Middle English hitten, from Old English hittan, from Old Norse hitta, from Proto-Germanic *hittijaną, from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eyd-.

Pronunciation

Noun

hit m inan

  1. (music) hit (a success, especially in the entertainment industry)

Declension

Derived terms

adjective

Further reading

  • hit in Wielki słownik języka polskiego, Instytut Języka Polskiego PAN
  • hit in Polish dictionaries at PWN

Portuguese

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from English hit.

Pronunciation

 

Noun

hit m (plural hits)

  1. hit (success, especially in the entertainment industry)
    Synonym: êxito

Derived terms

Further reading

Romanian

Etymology

From English hit.

Noun

hit n (plural hituri)

  1. hit (a success, especially in the entertainment industry)

Declension

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from English hit.

Pronunciation

Noun

hit m (plural hits)

  1. hit (success)
    Synonym: éxito

Swedish

Etymology 1

From Old Swedish hit, from *+at.

Composed in a similar way: Icelandic hegat and hingað.

Pressing the button marked HIT (to here) will make the lift come to the floor where the button is located.

Pronunciation

Adverb

hit (not comparable)

  1. to here, hither, (often in practice, in translations) here
    Antonym: dit (to there, thither)
    Hon kom hit, så nu är hon här
    She came here, so now she is here
    Hon kom här (for comparison)
    She came at this location (odd-sounding)
    Jag kom hit igår
    I came here yesterday
    springa hit och dit
    run to here and to there / run hither and thither (indicating for example chaos or a lack of direction)
Related terms

Etymology 2

From English hit.

Pronunciation

Noun

hit c

  1. (informal) a hit (popular song, or some other popular or successful thing)
Declension
Declension of hit 
Singular Plural
Indefinite Definite Indefinite Definite
Nominative hit hitten hits, hittar hitsen, hittarna
Genitive hits hittens hits, hittars hitsens, hittarnas
Derived terms

References

Volapük

Etymology

Borrowed from English heat. Compare German Hitze.

Pronunciation

Noun

hit (nominative plural hits)

  1. heat, warmth

Declension

Derived terms