jot

plural jots

1. The smallest letter or stroke of any writing; an iota.

   Of old, men said, "Sin not; / By every line and jot / Ye shall abide; man's heart is false and vile."

   1904, Bliss Carman, “Christmas Eve at St. Kavin’s”, in Songs from a Northern Garden (Pipes of Pan; no. 4), Boston, Mass.: L[ouis] C[oues] Page & Company, →OCLC, page 107

   2 more examples

   This bond doth giue thee here no iote of blood, / The vvords expreſly are a pound of fleſh: / Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of fleſh, / But in the cutting of it, if thou doſt ſhed / One drop of Chriſtian blood, thy lands and goods / Are by the lavves of Venice, confiſcate / Vnto the State of Venice.

   c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene i], signature [H4], verso

   For verily I ſay vnto you, Till heauen and earth paſſe, one iote or one tittle, ſhall in no wiſe paſſe from the law, till all be fulfilled.

   1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 5:18, column 1

2. broadlyA small, or the smallest, amount of a thing; a bit, a whit.

   He didn’t care a jot for his work.

   5 more examples

   Sir, the People muſt haue their Voiyes, / Neyther vvill they bate / One iot of Ceremonie.

   c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 11, column 2

   After this I ſpent a great deal of Time and Pains to make me an Umbrella; I vvas indeed in great vvant of one, and had a great mind to make one; I had ſeen them made in the Braſils, vvhere they are very uſeful in the great Heats vvhich are there: And I felt the Heats every jot as great here, and greater too, being nearer the Equinox; […]

   1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 159

   [T]hough Richard [III] vvas purſued and killed as a uſurper, the Solomon that ſucceeded him [Henry VII of England], vvas not a jot leſs a tyrant.

   1768, Horace Walpole, “The Murder of His Brother Clarence”, in Historic Doubts on the Life and Reign of King Richard the Third, London: […] J[ames] Dodsley […], →OCLC, page 31

   "If they had uncles enough to fill all Cheapside," cried Bingley, "it would not make them one jot less agreeable."

   1813 January 27, [Jane Austen], chapter VIII, in Pride and Prejudice: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 79

   For mark you, Tavy, the artist’s work is to show us ourselves as we really are. Our minds are nothing but this knowledge of ourselves; and he who adds a jot to such knowledge creates new mind as surely as any woman creates new men.

   1901–1903, [George] Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman. […], Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable & Co., published 1903, →OCLC, Act I, page 23

   Synonyms: ace, atom, thought, atomy, aught, bissel, continental, bit

   1. broadlyobsoleteAn instant, a moment.

      No faith, Ile not ſtay a iot longer: […]

      c. 1601–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “Twelfe Night, or What You Will”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii], page 266, column 1

      2 more examples

      So vveake my povvres, ſo ſore my vvounds appeare, / that vvonder is hovv I ſhould liue a iot, / ſeeing my hart through launched euery vvhere / vvith thouſand arrovves, vvhich your eies haue ſhot: […]

      1595, Edmunde Spenser [i.e., Edmund Spenser], “[Amoretti.] Sonnet LVII”, in Amoretti and Epithalamion. […], London: […] [Peter Short] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, signature [D6], recto

      Making my Death familiar to my Tongue / Digs not my Grave one Jot before the Date.

      1727 December 24 (first performance; Gregorian calendar), Lew[is] Theobald, W[illiam] Shakespeare, [John Fletcher], Double Falshood; or, The Distrest Lovers. […], London: […] J. Watts, […], published 1728, →OCLC, Act I, scene i, page 1

      Synonyms: ace, atom, thought, atomy, aught, bissel, continental, bit

3. A brief and hurriedly written note.

   "Lover," you say; "how beautiful that is, / That little word!” […] / Yes, it is beautiful. I have marked it long, / Long in my dusty head its jot secreted, / Yet my heart never knew this word a song / Till in the night softly by you repeated.

   1920, Robert Nichols, “Sonnets to Aurelia [Sonnet IV]”, in Aurelia & Other Poems, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 29

present singular third person jots · participle present jotting · participle past jotted · past jotted

1. transitiveChiefly followed by down: to write (something) quickly; to make a brief note of (something).

   Tell me your order so I can jot it down.

   1 more example

   He mentions as certain the falsehood of a number of the assertions concerning his usage, the unhealthy state of the island, and so forth. I have jotted down his evidence elsewhere.

   1827 February 12 (date written), Walter Scott, “[Entry dated 12 February 1827]”, in David Douglas, editor, The Journal of Sir Walter Scott […], volume I, Edinburgh: David Douglas, published 1890, →OCLC, page 357

present singular third person jots · participle present jotting · participle past jotted · past jotted

1. dialectaltransitiveobsolete except UKTo jerk or jolt (something); to jog.

   Nowe is iuſte iuſtice, ſo iotted out of iointe, / That ye here vniuſtely, ſtande at deniall, / To do me iuſtice, and wolde by power ryall: / Directe mine acquitall or condemnacion, / Euen as wyll in both: weith your acceptacion.

   1556, John Heywood, chapter 24, in The Spider and the Flie. […], London: […] Tho[mas] Powell, →OCLC; republished as A[dolphus] W[illiam] Ward, editor, The Spider and the Flie. […] (Publications of the Spenser Society, New Series; 6), Manchester: […] [Charles E. Simms] for the Spenser Society, 1894, →OCLC, page 110

   Synonyms: bump

plural jots

1. obsoleterareA jerk, a jolt.

   […] I ſay it is no uneven jot, to paſſe from the more faint and obſcure examples of Spermaticall life, to the more conſiderable effects of generall Motion in Mineralls, Metalls & ſundry Meteors, […]

   1653, Henry More, chapter XII, in An Antidote against Atheisme, or An Appeal to the Natural Faculties of the Minde of Man, whether There Be Not a God, London: […] Roger Daniel, […], →OCLC, book II, page 61

   1 more example

   [F]requent jot / Of his hard ſetting jade did ſo confound / The vvords that he by papyr-ſtealth had got, / That their loſt ſenſe the youngſter could not ſound, / Though he vvith mimical attention did abound.

   1640 (date written), H[enry] M[ore], “ΨΥΧΟΖΩΙΑ [Psychozōia], or A Christiano-platonicall Display of Life, […]”, in ΨΥΧΩΔΙΑ [Psychōdia] Platonica: Or A Platonicall Song of the Soul, […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: […] Roger Daniel, printer to the Universitie, published 1642, →OCLC, book 2, stanza 47, page 26

   Synonyms: bump