brit

present singular third person brits · participle present britting · participle past britted · past britted · alternative britt · alternative brite

1. transitiveTo break in pieces; divide.
2. transitiveTo bruise; indent.
3. intransitiveTo fall out or shatter (as overripe hops or grain).
4. dialectalintransitiveTo fade away; alter.

alternative britt

1. One of the young of herrings, sprats, etc.
2. One of the tiny crustaceans, of the genus Calanus, that are part of the diet of right whales.

   The edges of these bones are fringed with hairy fibres, through which the Right Whale strains the water, and in whose intricacies he retains the small fish, when openmouthed he goes through the seas of brit in feeding time.

   1851 November 14, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC

plural brits · alternative bris

1. brit milah
2. A covenant, specifically that between God and the Jewish people.

   There is a special brit between God and the Families-of-Israel. The Torah is the story of that brit

   2005, Joel Lurie Grishaver, Jewish Values Alef to Tav, page 13

   2 more examples

   The second theocentric approach to observance stresses the partnership of God and man. The Torah and the mitzvot express the eternal brit or covenant made between God and the Jewish people.

   2000, David Golinkin, “The Whys and Hows of Conservative Halakhah”, in Responsa in a Moment, volume 3, page 14

   When the Jews were expelled from Eretz Yisrael into galus, and were punished for their sins with the destruction of the first and second Temples, the bris between G-d and Yisrael is not ended.

   2020, Aaron Chaim HaLevi Zimmerman, Torah & Rationalism, page 120

plural Brits

1. informalformerly offensiveA British person.
2. A Brit Award, a prize for musicians in Britain.

comparative more Brit · superlative most Brit

1. abbreviationAbbreviation of British.

1. abbreviationAbbreviation of Britain.

   If Brit joins Common Market . . .; terms for Brit's entry agreed upon, U S will face new econ, political, defense problems when Brit joins EEC; […]

   1971, U.S. News & World Report, page 30

   2 more examples

   Worked extensively in Brit and USA on behaviour of biol fluids, particularly blood, also lectured in Brit, Germany, Sweden, Japan, Can, USA, 1960s; […]

   1999, Who's Who in Asia and the Pacific Nations, 4th edition, Routledge, page 445

   34 EVERYTHING HAPPENS AT NIGHT (TCF, Dec) Irving Cummings; genre: Drama; locations: Switzerland, Brit, France; coding: Ital, Pol, Jew, Ger, US-Brit Coop, For Corr, Nazi, Atroc-Conc, Pacifism, Ref, Brit, Am Icons; biases: Anti-Nazi, Pacifist?.

   1996, Michael S. Shull, David Edward Wilt, Hollywood War Films, 1937–1945: An Exhaustive Filmography of American Feature-Length Motion Pictures Relating to World War II, McFarland & Company, →ISBN, page 102

2. abbreviationhuman sciencesAbbreviation of British English.
3. A short river in Dorset, England, which flows through Bridport to the sea at West Bay; in full, the River Brit.