bit

plural bits

1. A small amount of something.

   I've done my bit; I expect you to do yours.

   4 more examples

   There were bits of paper all over the floor.

   Does your leg still hurt? —Just a bit now.

   ‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’

   1963, Margery Allingham, “The Beanspiller”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 186

   "I suppose my first objective was to try and help a department, which was very much civil servants who are rotating around on a regular basis, to try and understand public transport a wee bit better and try and understand what was required to run a bus and rail network," muses Conway.

   2026 March 18, Chris Conway talks to Andy Comfort, “The RAIL Interview”, in RAIL, page 32

   Synonyms: morsel, piece, scrap, ace, atom, thought, atomy, aught

2. A piece of metal placed in a horse's mouth and connected to the reins to direct the animal.

   A horse hates having a bit put in its mouth.

   Synonyms: kimberwicke, pelham, snaffle

3. A rotary cutting tool, fitted to a drill, brace, or router, used to bore or drill holes or to remove material from the profile of the workpiece.

   router bit

   1 more example

   chamfering bit

4. Applied to a various small units of currency and coins.
   1. UKdatedA coin of a specified value.

      a threepenny bit

      Synonyms: coin, piece

   2. CanadaUShistoricalA unit of currency worth one eighth of a dollar, originally of a Spanish dollar but later also US or Canadian; also, a coin with this value, in particular the silver Spanish real.

      A quarter is two bits.

      1 more example

      He left after shaking her down for four bits for carrying the bags.

      1966 March, Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49, New York, N.Y.: Bantam Books, published November 1976, →ISBN, page 16

      Synonyms: coin, piece

   3. CanadaUSobsoleteA coin of a value similar but not equal to this, in particular the 'short bit', i.e. the ten-cent piece or dime.

      The smallest coin we had in Canada in early days was a dime, worth ten cents. The Indians called this coin “a Bit”. Our next coin, double in buying power and in size, was a twenty-five cent piece and this the Indians called “Two Bits”.

      1941, Emily Carr, chapter 10, in Klee Wyck

      Synonyms: coin, piece

   4. historicalA unit of currency and coin of the British West Indies worth six black dogs, originally equal to one-eighth of a Spanish dollar but later increasingly debased to one tenth, one eleventh, one twelfth, etc.

      I trusted to the Lord to be with me; and at one of our trips to St. Eustatia, a Dutch island, I bought a glass tumbler with my half bit, and when I came to Montserrat I sold it for a bit, or sixpence.

      1789, Olaudah Equiano, chapter 6, in The Interesting Narrative, volume I

      Synonyms: coin, piece

   5. historicalA unit of currency of the Dutch West Indies in the early 20th century, worth one fifth of a cent.

      Synonyms: coin, piece

   6. Synonym of microbitcoin.

      Synonyms: coin, piece, microbitcoin

5. informalSpecifically, a small amount of time.

   I'll be there in a bit; I need to take care of something first.

   1 more example

   He was here just a bit ago, but it looks like he's stepped out.

   Synonyms: instant, jiffy, tick, bat of an eye, blink of an eye, crack, eyeblink, flash · Antonyms: age, while, aeon, age, ages, blue moon, coon's age, crow's age

6. informalA small fraction above a whole number.

   The movie lasted for two and a bit hours.

7. in pluralinformalhobbiesFractions of a second.

   The 400 metres race was won in 47 seconds and bits.

   Synonyms: split-second

8. A portion of something.

   I'd like a big bit of cake, please.

   1 more example

   Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.[…]A photo processing technique called focus stacking has changed that. Developed as a tool to electronically combine the sharpest bits of multiple digital images, focus stacking is a boon to biologists seeking full focus on a micron scale.

   2013 July-August, Catherine Clabby, “Focus on Everything”, in American Scientist

   Synonyms: portion, share, segment, chip, chunk, tranche, clip, crumb

9. Somewhat; something, but not very great; also used like jot and whit to express the smallest degree. See also a bit.

   Am I bored? Not a bit of it!

   1 more example

   My young companion was a bit of a poet.

   1835, Theodore Hook, Gilbert Gurney

10. A replaceable tip for a hand tool or power tool, comprising the portion that drives a fastener.

    driver bit

    1 more example

    Near-synonym: driver

    Synonyms: driver

11. slangA prison sentence, especially a short one.

    Had it not been for the influence of Mrs. Booth and Hope Hall I should still be grafting or doing a bit in some stir

    1904, The Anamosa prison press, volume 7, Iowa. Colony of Detention at Anamosa

    3 more examples

    Before doing that I am going to tell you what was the result of my own incarceration, because I presume it may not be a secret to you, that I have done a "bit" myself, not the "bit" which the prosecuting attorney was so anxious to have me do.

    1916, Thomas Mott Osborne. Warden, Sing Sing Prison, N. Y., “Prison Reform”, in The Journal of sociologic medicine, volume 17, page 407

    Chino didn't make me think of Dachau or that notorious joint in Angola, Louisiana, where a brother who had done a bit there told me how they used to cut the grass on the front lawn with their fingernails.

    1994, Odie Hawkins, Lost Angeles, page 158

    Not counting the days—that's okay for a county-time slap, but it'll make you crazy if you've got years to go on a felony bit.

    2001, Andrew H. Vachss, Pain management

    Synonyms: bid

12. An excerpt of material making up part of a show, comedy routine, etc.

    His bit about video games was not nearly as entertaining as the other segments of his show.

13. slangA gag or put-on; a humorous conceit, especially when insistently presented as true.

    Are you serious, or is this a bit?

    1 more example

    Also, I'm bi. I like dudes! ...That's weird to say. Everything I say feels like a bit now, god dammit.

    2024 March 1, F1NN5TER, 3:36 from the start, in Coming Out, archived from the original on 14 May 2024

    Synonyms: shaggy dog story, wind up, joke

14. abbreviationellipsisEllipsis of bit part.

    She acted her bit in the opening scene.

15. The part of a key which enters the lock and acts upon the bolt and tumblers.
16. The cutting iron of a plane.
17. The bevelled front edge of an axehead along which the cutting edge runs.
18. BDSMA gag of a style similar to a bridle.
19. Multicultural London EnglishA gun.

    Jimmy: I need to get my hands on some bits. If you’re still in the business. Ronnie (played by Nick Nevern): Oi! Trojan (played by Jean-Paul Van Cauwelaert): Ronnie. […] Trojan: Now that is a SIG Sauer P226.

    2013 December 23, Stephen Reynolds, 46:53 from the start, in Stephen Reynolds, director, Vendetta (film), spoken by Jimmy Vickers (Danny Dyer)

    Synonyms: skeng, toy, wap, firearm, gat, gun, iron, piece

present singular third person bits · participle present bitting · participle past bitted · past bitted

1. transitiveTo put a bridle upon; to put the bit in the mouth of (a horse).

1. pastsimple past of bite

   Your dog bit me!

2. archaicinformalparticiplepastpast participle of bite, bitten

   I've been bit by your dog!

1. in compoundsnot comparableHaving been bitten.

   Even though he's bit, of course the zombies would still chase him.

   3 more examples

   Fortunately, someone who gets skeeter-bit this much may develop an immunity to the skeeter's saliva

   1984 July, Field & Stream, volume 89, number 3, page 24

   Only the year before, the conjure man had brought in the Jackson County madstone, from way over in Illinois, for a white peddler that had been dog-bit, and the man went ahead and died just the same

   1992, Robert Lewis Taylor, The Travels of Jaimie McPheeters

   He will not — he'll tell you not to be loco, climbing up trees late at night when you'll get bug-bit to death plus you can't see anything

   1998, Adele Griffin, Rainy Season, page 121

plural bits

1. computingA binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.
2. computingThe smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.

   Synonyms: b

3. computingAny datum that may take on one of exactly two values.

   status bits on IRC

   1 more example

   permission bits in a file system

4. computingA unit of measure for information entropy.

   1 more example

   The researchers found that the original texts spanned a variety of entropy values in different languages, reflecting differences in grammar and structure. But strangely, the difference in entropy between the original, ordered text and the randomly scrambled text was constant across languages. This difference is a way to measure the amount of information encoded in word order, Montemurro says. The amount of information lost when they scrambled the text was about 3.5 bits per word.

   2011 May 17, Lisa Grossman, “Entropy Is Universal Rule of Language”, in Wired Science, retrieved 26 Sep 2012

5. A microbitcoin, or a millionth of a bitcoin (0.000001 BTC).

1. An Austroasiatic language spoken in China and Laos.

1. UKabbreviationacronymgovernmentAcronym of Behavioural Insights Team.