tit
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /tɪt/
rhymes: -ɪt
Forms: form: tits
Etymology: Probably of North Germanic/Scandinavian origin; found earliest in titling and titmouse; compare Faroese títlingur, dialectal Norwegian titling (“small stockfish”).
Senses: glosses: A chickadee; a small passerine bird of the genus Parus or the family Paridae, common in the Northern Hemisphere.
glosses: Any of various other small passerine birds.
examples: text: […] he was reſolved, for the time to come, to ride his tit with more ſobriety.
ref: 1759, [Laurence Sterne], chapter XII, in The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, 2nd (1st London) edition, volume I, London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley […], published 1760, →OCLC, page 66:
text: Bob trotted gently by the side of the carriage. “Not a bad looking tit,” said St. Leger, as they went along.
ref: 1854, Charles James Collins, The life and adventures of Dick Diminy, page 156:
text: Gossiping, and smoothing the horse's mane down with his hand, "A nice little tit," said the man.
ref: 1862, Robert Kemp Philp, The Family friend, page 362:
text: I shall keep my eye open, and the first pretty little tit I see that I think will suit you, I shall make the guv'nor buy.
ref: 2019, George Manville Fenn, Cursed by a Fortune:
glosses: A small horse; a nag.
examples: text: "What sort of a feringee is this?" said a lively little tit—"eh?"
ref: 1843, Charles James C. Davidson, Diary of Travels and Adventures in Upper India:
text: But I don't mind; she's a pretty little tit, and Dick has taught her to call me uncle.
ref: 1887, George Manville Fenn, The Master of the Ceremonies, page 44:
text: What, I suppose, Mr. Loader, you will be for your old friend the black ey'd girl, from Rosemary Lane. Ha ha! Well, 'tis a merry little tit. A thousand pities she's such a reprobate!
ref: 2013, Vic Gatrell, The First Bohemians: Life and Art in London's Golden Age, page xcix:
glosses: A young girl, later especially a minx, hussy.
examples: text: Now if you can shew so neat a foot, ( shewing her shoe ) —Parlez moi de ça : —I suppose I was not noble enough for this squire; he must have a bit a blood, a tit of quality — but I shall be a countess soon, and a mighty good sort of countess I shall make.
ref: 1813, James Lawrence, The Englishman at Verdun; Or the Prisoner of Peace, page 44:
text: Being drunk , he remembers not a tit of life before the drink came well home. It is not that he sees the past mistily; he does not see at all. He lives then only in as much of the present as the word of his master for the time being[…]
ref: 1951, Thomas Henry MacDermot, Tom Redcam, Orange Valley, and Other Poems, page 66:
text: Would we understand woman if we took her whole instead of tit by tit?
ref: 1988, E. C. Curtsinger, Towers, Crosses, page 236:
text: The one farthest from the river was the largest and tallest; they decreased in size toward the river, until the fourth was little more than a tit of rock jutting up out of the prairie.
ref: 1999, Benjamin Capps, A Woman of the People, page 78:
glosses: A morsel; a bit.
Derived terms: sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: acacia tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: African blue tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: ashy tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: azure tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
english: family Panuridae
translation: family Panuridae
word: bearded tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: black-bibbed tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: black-crested tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: blue tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: bushtit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: Carp's tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: Caspian tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: chestnut-bellied tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: cinereous tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: cinnamon-breasted tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: coal tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: crested tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: crow-tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: dusky tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: elegant tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: European penduline tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: fire-capped tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: great tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: green-backed tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: grey crested tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: grey tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: Himalayan black-lored tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: Indian black-lored tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: Iriomote tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: Japanese tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
english: family Aegithalidae
translation: family Aegithalidae
word: long-tailed tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: marsh tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: miombo tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: New Zealand tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: oven tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: Owston's tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: Palawan tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
english: family Remizidae
translation: family Remizidae
word: penduline tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: Père David's tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: red-throated tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: rufous-bellied tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: rufous-naped tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: rufous-vented tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: Sichuan tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: somber tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: sombre tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: southern black tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: stripe-breasted tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: sultan tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: telltale tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
english: family Timaliidae
translation: family Timaliidae
word: tit-babbler
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: tit-flycatcher
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: titlark
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: titlike
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: titling
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: titmouse
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: tit-spinetail
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: tit-tyrant
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: tit warbler
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: tit-warbler
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: tom tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
english: family Petroicidae
translation: family Petroicidae
word: tom-tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: varied tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: white-backed black tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: white-bellied tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: white-browed tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: white-fronted tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: white-naped tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: white-shouldered black tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: white-winged black tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: willow tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: wrentit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
english: family Sylviidae
translation: family Sylviidae
word: wrentit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: yellow-bellied tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: yellow-browed tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: yellow-cheeked tit
sense: terms derived from tit Etymology 3
word: yellow tit
Related terms: tit lok