Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Fit?

\Fit\, imp. & p. p. of {Fight}. [Obs. or Colloq.]
\Fit\, n. [AS. fitt a song.] In Old English, a song; a strain; a canto or portion of a ballad; a passus. [Written also {fitte}, {fytte}, etc.] To play some pleasant fit. --Spenser.
\Fit\, a. [Compar. {Fitter}; superl. {Fittest}.] [OE. fit, fyt; cf. E. feat neat, elegant, well made, or icel. fitja to web, knit, OD. vitten to suit, square, Goth. f?tjan to adorn. ? 77.] 1. Adapted to an end, object, or design; suitable by nature or by art; suited by character, qualitties, circumstances, education, etc.; qualified; competent; worthy. That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in. --Shak. Fit audience find, though few. --Milton. 2. Prepared; ready. [Obs.] So fit to shoot, she singled forth among her foes who first her quarry's strength should feel. --Fairfax. 3. Conformed to a standart of duty, properiety, or taste; convenient; meet; becoming; proper. Is it fit to say a king, Thou art wicked? --Job xxxiv. 18. Syn: Suitable; proper; appropriate; meet; becoming; expedient; congruous; correspondent; apposite; apt; adapted; prepared; qualified; competent; adequate.
\Fit\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Fitted}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Fitting}.] 1. To make fit or suitable; to adapt to the purpose intended; to qualify; to put into a condition of readiness or preparation. The time is fitted for the duty. --Burke. The very situation for which he was peculiarly fitted by nature. --Macaulay. 2. To bring to a required form and size; to shape aright; to adapt to a model; to adjust; -- said especially of the work of a carpenter, machinist, tailor, etc. The carpenter . . . marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes. --Is. xliv. 13. 3. To supply with something that is suitable or fit, or that is shaped and adjusted to the use required. No milliner can so fit his customers with gloves. --Shak. 4. To be suitable to; to answer the requirements of; to be correctly shaped and adjusted to; as, if the coat fits you, put it on. That's a bountiful answer that fits all questions. --Shak. That time best fits the work. --Shak. {To fit out}, to supply with necessaries or means; to furnish; to equip; as, to fit out a privateer. {To fit up}, to firnish with things suitable; to make proper for the reception or use of any person; to prepare; as, to fit up a room for a guest.
\Fit\, v. i. 1. To be proper or becoming. Nor fits it to prolong the feast. --Pope. 2. To be adjusted to a particular shape or size; to suit; to be adapted; as, his coat fits very well.
\Fit\, n. 1. The quality of being fit; adjustment; adaptedness; as of dress to the person of the wearer. 2. (Mach.) (a) The coincidence of parts that come in contact. (b) The part of an object upon which anything fits tightly. {Fit rod} (Shipbuilding), a gauge rod used to try the depth of a bolt hole in order to determine the length of the bolt required. --Knight.
\Fit\, n. [AS. fit strife, fight; of uncertain origin. [root] 77.] 1. A stroke or blow. [Obs. or R.] Curse on that cross, quoth then the Sarazin, That keeps thy body from the bitter fit. --Spenser. 2. A sudden and violent attack of a disorder; a stroke of disease, as of epilepsy or apoplexy, which produces convulsions or unconsciousness; a convulsion; a paroxysm; hence, a period of exacerbation of a disease; in general, an attack of disease; as, a fit of sickness. And when the fit was on him, I did mark How he did shake. --Shak. 3. A mood of any kind which masters or possesses one for a time; a temporary, absorbing affection; a paroxysm; as, a fit melancholy, of passion, or of laughter. All fits of pleasure we balanced by an equal degree of pain. --Swift. The English, however, were on this subject prone to fits of jealously. --Macaulay. 4. A passing humor; a caprice; a sudden and unusual effort, activity, or motion, followed by relaxation or insction; an impulse and irregular action. The fits of the season. --Shak. 5. A darting point; a sudden emission. [R.] A tongue of light, a fit of flame. --Coleridge. {By fits}, {By fits and starts}, by intervals of action and re?pose; impulsively and irregularly; intermittently.