Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Hit?

\Hit\, pron. It. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
\Hit\, 3d pers. sing. pres. of {Hide}, contracted from hideth. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
\Hit\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Hit}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Hitting}.] [OE. hitten, hutten, of Scand. origin; cf. Dan. hitte to hit, find, Sw. & Icel. hitta.] 1. To reach with a stroke or blow; to strike or touch, usually with force; especially, to reach or touch (an object aimed at). I think you have hit the mark. --Shak. 2. To reach or attain exactly; to meet according to the occasion; to perform successfully; to attain to; to accord with; to be conformable to; to suit. Birds learning tunes, and their endeavors to hit the notes right. --Locke. There you hit him; . . . that argument never fails with him. --Dryden. Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of human sight. --Milton. He scarcely hit my humor. --Tennyson. 3. To guess; to light upon or discover. ``Thou hast hit it.'' --Shak. 4. (Backgammon) To take up, or replace by a piece belonging to the opposing player; -- said of a single unprotected piece on a point. {To hit off}, to describe with quick characteristic strokes; as, to hit off a speaker. --Sir W. Temple. {To hit out}, to perform by good luck. [Obs.] --Spenser.
\Hit\, v. i. 1. To meet or come in contact; to strike; to clash; -- followed by against or on. If bodies be extension alone, how can they move and hit one against another? --Locke. Corpuscles, meeting with or hitting on those bodies, become conjoined with them. --Woodward. 2. To meet or reach what was aimed at or desired; to succeed, -- often with implied chance, or luck. And oft it hits Where hope is coldest and despair most fits. --Shak. And millions miss for one that hits. --Swift. {To hit on} or {upon}, to light upon; to come to by chance. ``None of them hit upon the art.'' --Addison.
\Hit\, n. 1. A striking against; the collision of one body against another; the stroke that touches anything. So he the famed Cilician fencer praised, And, at each hit, with wonder seems amazed. --Dryden. 2. A stroke of success in an enterprise, as by a fortunate chance; as, he made a hit. What late he called a blessing, now was wit, And God's good providence, a lucky hit. --Pope. 3. A peculiarly apt expression or turn of thought; a phrase which hits the mark; as, a happy hit. 4. A game won at backgammon after the adversary has removed some of his men. It counts less than a gammon. 5. (Baseball) A striking of the ball; as, a safe hit; a foul hit; -- sometimes used specifically for a {base hit}. {Base hit}, {Safe hit}, {Sacrifice hit}. (Baseball) See under {Base}, {Safe}, etc.