hit Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun (baseball) a successful stroke in an athletic contest (especially in baseball)
    • he came all the way around on Williams' hit
  2. noun the act of contacting one thing with another
    hitting; striking.
    • repeated hitting raised a large bruise
    • after three misses she finally got a hit
  3. noun a conspicuous success
    strike; smash; bang; smasher.
    • that song was his first hit and marked the beginning of his career
    • that new Broadway show is a real smasher
    • the party went with a bang
  4. noun (physics) a brief event in which two or more bodies come together
    collision.
    • the collision of the particles resulted in an exchange of energy and a change of direction
  5. noun a dose of a narcotic drug
  6. noun a murder carried out by an underworld syndicate
    • it has all the earmarks of a Mafia hit
  7. noun a connection made via the internet to another website
    • WordNet gets many hits from users worldwide
  8. verb cause to move by striking
    • hit a ball
  9. verb hit against; come into sudden contact with
    strike; run into; collide with; impinge on.
    • The car hit a tree
    • He struck the table with his elbow
  10. verb deal a blow to, either with the hand or with an instrument
    • He hit her hard in the face
  11. verb reach a destination, either real or abstract
    make; reach; attain; arrive at; gain.
    • We hit Detroit by noon
    • The water reached the doorstep
    • We barely made it to the finish line
    • I have to hit the MAC machine before the weekend starts
  12. verb affect or afflict suddenly, usually adversely
    strike.
    • We were hit by really bad weather
    • He was stricken with cancer when he was still a teenager
    • The earthquake struck at midnight
  13. verb hit with a missile from a weapon
    shoot; pip.
  14. verb encounter by chance
    stumble.
    • I stumbled across a long-lost cousin last night in a restaurant
  15. verb gain points in a game
    rack up; tally; score.
    • The home team scored many times
    • He hit a home run
    • He hit .300 in the past season
  16. verb cause to experience suddenly
    strike; come to.
    • Panic struck me
    • An interesting idea hit her
    • A thought came to me
    • The thought struck terror in our minds
    • They were struck with fear
  17. verb make a strategic, offensive, assault against an enemy, opponent, or a target
    strike.
    • The Germans struck Poland on Sept. 1, 1939
    • We must strike the enemy's oil fields
    • in the fifth inning, the Giants struck, sending three runners home to win the game 5 to 2
  18. verb kill intentionally and with premeditation
    murder; off; slay; dispatch; remove; bump off; polish off.
    • The mafia boss ordered his enemies murdered
  19. verb drive something violently into a location
    strike.
    • he hit his fist on the table
    • she struck her head on the low ceiling
  20. verb reach a point in time, or a certain state or level
    reach; attain.
    • The thermometer hit 100 degrees
    • This car can reach a speed of 140 miles per hour
  21. verb produce by manipulating keys or strings of musical instruments, also metaphorically
    strike.
    • The pianist strikes a middle C
    • strike `z' on the keyboard
    • her comments struck a sour note
  22. verb consume to excess
    • hit the bottle
  23. verb hit the intended target or goal
  24. verb pay unsolicited and usually unwanted sexual attention to
    • He tries to hit on women in bars

WordNet

Hit pronoun
Definitions
  1. It. Obs. Chaucer.
Hit
Definitions
  1. 3d pers. sing. pres. of Hide, contracted from hideth. Obs. Chaucer.
Hit transitive verb
Etymology
OE. hitten, hutten, of Scand. origin; cf. Dan. hitte to hit, find, Sw. & Icel. hitta.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Hit; present participle & verbal noun Hitting
Definitions
  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.
Hit intransitive verb
Definitions
  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.
    Addison.
Hit noun
Definitions
  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.
    esp. A performance, as a musical recording, movie, or play, which achieved great popularity or acclaim. also used of books or objects of commerce which become big sellers
  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. 6. A murder performed for hire, esp. by a professional assassin. hit man. (a) a professional murderer, esp. one working for a criminal organization; also, "torpedo" [jargon] (b) (fig.) A slanderer working for political purposes -- See "hatchet man".
Hit. adjective
Definitions
  1. having become very popular or acclaimed; -- said of entertainment performances; as, a hit record, a hit movie.

Webster 1913