▪ I. tit, n.1 dial. (chiefly Sc.)
(tɪt)
[? f. tit v.1]
A sharp or sudden pull; a tug, jerk, twitch.
| 1340 Hampole Pr. Consc. 1915 Yf þat tre war tite pulled oute At a titte with al þe rotes oboute. 1581 Satir. Poems Reform. xliii. 75 Sa Fortoun mountit neuer man sa hie,..Bot with ane tit sho turnis the quheill. 1827 Kinloch Ballad Bk. 63 He gied the tow a clever tit That brocht her out at the lum. 1881 Paul Aberdeen. 111 The craetur' gied a tit, an' afore I kent fat I was about, I was lyin' o' the braid o' my back. |
▪ II. tit, n.2
[Goes with tit v.2]
1. In phr. tit for tat [app. a variation of tip for tap, known a century earlier: see tap n.2, tip n.2, and cf. prec. But perh. wholly or partly onomatopœic.] One blow or stroke in return for another; an equivalent given in return (usually in the way of injury, rarely of benefit); retaliation. Also used as rhyming slang for ‘hat’. Cf. titfer.
The whole phrase is used sometimes as a n., sometimes as adj. or adv.; also, elliptically or as int.
| 1556 J. Heywood Spider & F. xxxvii. 26 That is tit for tat in this altricacion. 1586 J. Hooker Hist. Irel. in Holinshed II. 94/1 That they would not sticke to set his seruants at libertie, so he would redeliuer them the youth of the citie, which was nothing else in effect, but tit for tat. 1710 Addison Tatler No. 229 ¶3, I was threatened to be answered Weekly Tit for Tat. 1809 J. Quincy in Life 181, I shall..give..what politicians call a Rowland for their Oliver, and what the ladies term tit for tat. 1881 Saintsbury Dryden iv. 80 A fair literary tit-for-tat in return for the Rehearsal. 1891 Daily News 16 July 5/1 Fair Traders, Reciprocity men, or believers in the tit-for-tat plan of dealing with other nations. 1905 H. A. Vachell The Hill viii, Tit for tat. If I do this for you, will you do something for me? 1925 Fraser & Gibbons Soldier & Sailor Words & Phrases 285 Tit for tat, hat. (Rhyming slang). 1930, 1937 [see titfer]. |
2. A light stroke or tap; a slap: cf. tip n.2
| 1808 Jamieson, Tyte, tit... 2. A slight stroke, a tap. 1891 Hartland Gloss. s.v., I'll gi'e 'ee a tit under the yur. |
3. Comb.: tit-tat, an imitation of the sound of alternating taps or blows; tit-tat-toe, (a) the beginning of a formula used in ‘picking’ or fixing upon a person or thing, hence a children's game; (b) dial. or U.S. = noughts and crosses (see nought n. 7 c); see also tick-tack-toe, tip-tap-toe s.v. tip-tap.
In quot. a 1700 imitating the noise made in toddling. The precise nature of the activity referred to in quot. 1865 is uncertain and cannot be determined from the context.
| a 1700 B. E. Dict. Cant. Crew, Tit-tat, the aiming of Children to go at first. 1855 A. Manning O. Chelsea Bun-house xiii. 211, I played at Tit-tat-to with Joe, and posed him with hard riddles. 1865 Trollope Can you forgive Her? II. xxi. 164 The signing-clerk's clerk..playing tit-tat-to by himself upon official blotting-paper. 1888 B. Lowsley Gloss. Berks. Words & Phrases 164 Tit-tat-toe, the first game taught to children when they can use a slate pencil, the words ‘Tit-tat-toe, My first go’, being said by the one who first makes three crosses, or noughts in a row. 1898 A. T. Slosson Dumb Foxglove 11 Checkers, and tit-tat-toe, and fox-and-geese, and set down games like those. 1909 Daily Chron. 22 July 7/1 Drawing to be diversified by noughts and crosses and ‘tit tat toe’. 1961 New Scientist 9 Nov. 367 Noughts and Crosses (known in America as Tit-Tat-To). 1973 J. Scarne Encycl. Games 583 Tit-tat-toe. This simple game, also called Noughts and Crosses in Great Britain, is played on diagrams consisting of intersecting parallel lines. |
▪ III. tit, n.3
Also 6 tyt, titte, 6–8 titt, 7 tytt.
[app. of onomatopœic origin, as a term for a small animal or object; found also to some extent in Scandinavian and Icel.; cf. Norw. dial. titta little girl, tîta a little fish, trout, sprout, minute growth, little kernel, little ball or marble, Icel. tittr a little plug or pin, also, a titmouse (Norw. tite): see also titling, titmouse, in which tit occurs much earlier than by itself.]
I. 1. a. A name for a horse small of kind, or not full grown; in later use often applied in depreciation or meiosis to any horse; a nag. Now rare.
| 1548 Patten Exped. Scotl. D j, He rode on a trottynge tyt well woorth a coople of shillynges. 1563 Golding Cæsar iv. (1565) 85 But such [beastes] as are bred among them though they be littel tittes & yll shapen, they make..to be very good of labor. 1598 Florio, Bidetto, a little horse, a nagge, a tit, a little doing horse. 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Country Farme 538 If you will let them haue anie Tytt or meane Iade to goe before them, and lead the way. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Tits, a Country-word, for small Cattel. 1726 Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), Tit, a little Horse, and some call a Horse of a middling Size a double Tit. 1797 Sporting Mag. IX. 338, I keep a curricle and a brace of tits. 1821 Scott Kenilw. xi, I have as good a tit as ever yeoman bestrode. 1894 Sir J. D. Astley 50 Years Life II. 186 A very promising tit named Woodstock. |
† b. fig. of a person, etc. See also 2. Obs.
| 1706–7 Farquhar Beaux Strat. i. i, As to our Hearts, I grant 'ye, they are as willing Tits as any within Twenty Degrees. a 1734 North Exam. i. iii. §40 (1740) 145 As the willing Tits of the Party, and weaker Brethren. |
2. a. A girl or young woman: often qualified as little: cf. chit; also applied indiscriminately to women of any age (? dial.). (a) Usually in depreciation or disapproval: esp. one of loose character, a hussy, a minx. (b) Sometimes in affection or admiration, or playful meiosis. (Common in 17th and 18th c.; now low slang.)
| 1599 Middleton Micro-Cynicon Wks. (Bullen) VIII. 122 He hath his tit, and she likewise her gull; Gull he, trull she. 1606 Sir G. Goosecappe iv. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 69 Hang am Tytts! ile pommell my selfe into am. 1606 Choice, Chance, etc. (1881) 66 His Dad a Tinker, and his Dam a Tit. 1693 Humours Town 11 My little Tit..loves the Town, as well as my self. 1787 Beckford Italy (1834) II. 363 A bevy of young tits dressed out in a fantastic, blowzy style..drew their chairs round us [at an assembly in Madrid]. 1837 T. Creevey Papers, etc. (1904) II. 324, I am sure from Lady Tavistock that she thinks the Queen a resolute little tit. 1886 Fenn Master Cerem. vii, She's a pretty little tit. 1922 E. R. Eddison Worm Ouroboros xxxi. 397 The Demons,..since they had a strong loathing for such ugly tits and stale old trots, would no doubt hang her up or disembowel her. 1932 S. O'Faolain Midsummer Night Madness 62 I'm sorry for his two tits of sisters, though. 1969 H. E. Bates Vanished World ix. 87 ‘The old tit’ doddered forth... I see her as a kind of..diminutive nun, untouched and unprotected. |
† b. Rarely applied to a lad or young man. Obs.
| 1599 Massinger, etc. Old Law iii. ii, Must young court tits Play tomboys' tricks with her, and he [her husband] live? |
II. 3. A word used in comb. in the names of various small birds as titlark, titling, titmouse, tomtit, q.v. Used alone, as a shortened form of titmouse, applied to a. any bird of the genus Parus, and, more widely, any member of the family Paridæ; b. With qualification: some birds of other families as the bearded tit: see titmouse 2 b; hill-tit: see hill n. 4 f.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Tit, or Titmouse, a little Bird. 1802 Marsh Tit [Marsh 4 b]. 1831 Bearded Tit [see reed-pheasant s.v. reed n.1 14]. 1843 [see coal-tit]. 1845 Blue-tit [blue a. 12 a]. 1851 Bottle-tit [bottle n.1 5]. 1859 Tennyson Geraint & Enid 275 Tits, wrens, and all wing'd nothings peck him dead! 1880 A. R. Wallace Isl. Life ii. 20 These are all the European tits, but there are many others. 1906 Westm. Gaz. 14 Apr. 15/2 No longer do bands of tits drift through the woods or along the hedgerows... Strange..that the long tailed tit, the only species of the group that builds its nest in a bush, should be the first to start. |
c. attrib. and Comb., as tit-like adj.; tit-babbler, one of several species of hill-tits, esp. Trichostoma rostratum; tit-bell, a bell-shaped container filled with seeds, fat, etc., and suspended out of doors to supply food to tits and other birds of similar habits; tit-pipit, a name of the titlark or meadow pipit, Anthus pratensis; tit-warbler, ‘a bird of the subfamily Parinæ’ (Swainson).
| 1893 Newton Dict. Birds 26 The..Babblers, often with a prefix such as Bush-Babbler, Shrike-Babbler, *Tit-Babbler,..belong chiefly to the Ethiopian and Indian Regions. |
| 1934 J. M. Crosthwaite in H. M. Batten Our Garden Birds 184 Mr. Mortimer Batten has..invented and developed many ingenious and artistic feeding devices... The *tit bell is filled with melted fat, which is allowed to set, after which the bell is hung. 1976 Southern Even. Echo (Southampton) 3 Nov. 12/3 Another useful device for feeding tits and woodpeckers is to make a ‘tit bell’. |
| 1907 Westm. Gaz. 15 Mar. 4/2 But all the rest are bustling about in their own restless, *tit-like manner. |
| 1819 G. Samouelle Entomol. Compend. 303 Inhabits the black grouse and *tit-pippit. |
▪ IV. tit, n.4 techn.
[Of uncertain and possibly diverse origin; in sense 1 perh. related to tit n.1 or n.2; in sense 2 perh. = teat.]
1. Nail-making. A loose piece of steel used to jerk the finished nail out of the bore.
| 1902 Baring-Gould Nebo the Nailer ii, Working in the bore is the ‘tit’ that..ejects the finished nail. 1912 Let. to Editor, The ‘tit’ is a small loose plain piece of steel which is placed in the ‘bore’ for the purpose of ejecting the nail from the bore after the nail is headed. |
2. A small core of metal accidentally left by the shifting of the drill point in boring a hole.
| 1884 F. J. Britten Watch & Clockm. 129 If the centre is missed a tit is formed which gives trouble. |
▪ V. tit, n.5
[? Infantile variant of kit n.3]
Used as a call to a cat.
| 1828 Craven Gloss., Tit, this, with its adjunct puss, is frequently used for calling a cat. 1837 Dickens Pickw. xvi, ‘It must have been the cat, Sarah’, said the girl... ‘Puss, puss, puss—tit, tit, tit’. |
▪ VI. tit, n.6
[Var. of teat.]
1. a. Var. of teat. Now Obs. exc. dial. and in senses below.
b. pl. A woman's breasts. Also in sing. slang (orig. U.S.).
| 1928 in A. W. Read Classical Amer. Graffiti (1935) 80 A girl may sit & finger her tits and play with her cunt all day. 1947 C. Willingham End as Man 93 ‘Well,’ said Munro. ‘That girl ought to go to Hollywood.’ ‘She wouldn't make it out there,’ blushed Wilson. ‘No tits.’ 1962 J. Heller Catch-22 xviii. 181 How do you expect anyone to believe you have a liver condition if you keep squeezing the nurses tits every time you get a chance. 1969 Oz May 40/2 Mary Anne Shelley, with the best tits off-off-Broadway. 1980 J. Barnes Metroland i. xi. 63 Tits? I asked myself in furtive panic. Well, you couldn't really see, not with that dress. |
c. to get on one's tits or (occas.) tit: to irritate intensely, get on the nerves of. slang.
| 1945 Baker Austral. Lang. vi. 121 Someone or something disagreeable is said to get on one's..tit. 1966 ‘L. Lane’ ABZ of Scouse 40 Gets on me tits, annoys me very much. 1967 N. Freeling Strike out where not Applicable 114 Those women, who even wear a corset under riding breeches..they're the ones who get on my tits. 1973 P. White Eye of Storm vii. 304 Much as she disliked men, Sister Manhood began to think women got on her tits as badly. 1977 J. Wilson Making Hate xiii. 153 This Sherlock Holmes act of yours gets right on my tits. |
d. tits and ass or arse: slang phr. used to denote crude sexuality. Similarly tits and bums. Also transf., a magazine containing photographs of nude women; also called tit mag(azine).
| 1972 R. A. Wilson Playboy's Bk. Forbidden Words 288 The late Lenny Bruce once suggested that ‘Tits and Ass’ would be the most accurate advertisement for most night-club acts. 1975 New Society 3 July 26/3 His lascivious sisters in the tit mags who part their legs and leer. 1975 Wentworth & Flexner's Dict. Amer. Slang Suppl. 750/1 Tits and ass [taboo] adj., of, being, or pertaining to commercial photographs of nude young women. 1976 N. Thornburg Cutter & Bone i. 24 A tits-and-ass independent, you might call him. 1977 D. Francis Risk xii. 150 On Wednesday, paragraphs in all the dailies... ‘Fun Jock Twice Removed?’ from a tits and bums. 1977 Zigzag Apr. 34/1 Not unless you look at some jerk-off magazine, a tit-and-ass magazine disguised as some junior hippy kind of thing. 1978 K. Amis Jake's Thing (1979) v. 49 A keen buyer of tit-magazines. 1978 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 4 Nov. 13/2 Victor Matthews, chairman of Express Newspapers..put his people to work on plans for a new tabloid ‘with plenty of tits and bums’. 1980 in S. Terkel Amer. Dreams 1 There are certain images that come to mind when people talk about beauty queens. It's mostly what's known as t and a, tits and arse. No talent. 1982 Sunday Times 2 Sept. 29/1 Ugly George, America's prime TV porn artist (who invites women to undress for his video camera), with his ‘tit n' ass’ cable channel. |
e. arse over tit: see arse n. 1 b.
2. = teat 2; spec. a push-button, esp. one used to fire a gun or release a bomb. orig. Forces' slang.
| 1942 J. Gleed Arise to Conquer iv. 30 Pull the tit. [Note] This is the emergency control which, by driving the supercharger at its very maximum pace, gives the aeroplane considerable extra speed. 1943 ‘T. Dudley-Gordon’ Coastal Command at War xvii. 165 It was time to release the depth-charges... I pressed the tit and that was the last I saw of it [sc. the bomb] for a bit. 1972 A. Price Colonel Butler's Wolf xii. 135 They've built this mock-up in the Museum... You press the tit, and the lights go out. 1976 ‘J. Ross’ I know what it's like to Die xxi. 136 He pressed the tit of the bell push and she opened the door. |
▸ slang (chiefly Brit.). off one's tits: = off one's face at face n. Additions.
| 1992Re: Rave is Dead in alt.rave (Usenet newsgroup) 19 Nov. It was ‘Acid house’ back then, when E was something new, and everyone was off their tits. 1997G. Hills in S. Champion Disco Biscuits 65 And up the stairs shines Danny glorious. He is off his tits. 2000 Sunday Herald (Glasgow) 24 Sept. 13/2 Someone who is freezing cold in the street who may take a drink or a drug to heat up a bit, that's really sad and pitiful, but not some f***ing pop star who is off his or her tits. |
▪ VII. tit, n.7 slang.
[Of uncertain origin: perh. f. tit n.6; cf. tit n.3, twit n.1 2 b.]
A foolish or ineffectual person, a nincompoop.
| 1947 Landfall (N.Z.) Dec. 290 Why didn't Lachlan go, the silly tit? 1965 M. Frayn Tin Men (1966) xv. 69 ‘Who are all these people?’ they shouted at one another. ‘All which people?’ ‘All these tits in tweed sports jackets.’ Ibid. 70 ‘Peculiar friends he has.’ ‘Tits, a lot of them.’ 1968 Listener 19 Sept. 370/2, I don't think much of this little tit Hitler, do you, ducky? 1978 S. Wilson Dealer's Move vii. 122 We always took a gun, and it kept me quite alert, not wishing to make a tit of myself in front of the laird. |
▪ VIII. tit, a. Obs. exc. dial.
Editors suggest, in quot. c 1400, ‘Dear, loved’. In mod. dial. Fond: cf. tid a., tit-bit.
| c 1400 Destr. Troy 7106 Þen vnhappely hys hest he hastid to do, Þat angart hym after angardly sore, Turnyt hym to tene & all the tit Rewme. 1854 A. E. Baker Northampt. Gloss. s.v., When a person is particularly attentive to, or indulgent to another, it is said, ‘He is very tit of her’. |
▪ IX. tit, v.1 dial. (chiefly Sc.)
Also 4–5 tyt, 4–6 titte; pa. tense 4 tite, (tyd), 4–5 tit, titt, tyt, 5 tyte, 7– titted (9 -et); pa. pple. 4 tytted, 5 tyt, tytt, 6–7 tit, 7– titted.
[Etymology obscure: goes with tit n.1; see Note below.]
trans. To pull forcibly, to tug; to snatch. Also intr. to pull at.
| 13.. Cursor M. 15303 (Cott.) His fote ful tite he til him tite [Gött. titt], Him schamed it was well sene. Ibid. 15837 (Gött.) And als þai fra þe erd him titt [Trin. pulde] His bodi was all stund. 1375 Barbour Bruce v. 603 He tit the bow out of his hand. c 1470 Henry Wallace vi. 143 Ane maid a scrip, and tyt at his lang suorde; ‘Hald still thi hand’, quod he, ‘and spek thi word’. c 1470 Henryson Mor. Fab. ix. (Wolf & Fox) xxiv, The wecht thairof neir tit my tuskis out. 1873 J. Ogg Willie Waly, etc. 115 Hoo angry he was when ye tittet his tails. 1896 Barrie Tommy xxiv. 281 She realised that Miss Kitty was titting at her dress. |
† b. To pull up, esp. in a halter; hence, to hang. Obs.
| c 1375 Sc. Leg. Saints xl. (Ninian) 983 About his nek þai knyt a rape, & tit hym vpe, & lefit hyme þare. c 1470 Henry Wallace vii. 212 Be he entrit, hys hed was in the swar; Tytt to the bauk, hangyt to ded rycht thar. 1500–20 Dunbar Poems xvii. 28 Sum..nevir fra taking can hald thair hand, Quhill he be tit vp to ane tre. 1638 R. Brathwait Barnabees Jrnl. iii. (1818) 125 A piper being here committed, Guilty found, condemn'd and titted. |
† c. To lay hold of forcibly, clutch, seize; ? to pull or drag about. Obs.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. iv. vii. 1074 His stewart made on hym a schot And tyt [v.r. claucht] hym dourly be þe throte. c 1450 Holland Howlat 837 The Golk..tit the Tuchet be the tope, ourtirvit his hed. c 1475 Rauf Coilȝear 123 He tyt the King be the nek. Ibid. 432 For to towsill me or tit me, thocht foull be my clais, Or I be dantit on sic wyse, my lyfe salbe lorne. |
[Note. The sense agrees with that of tight v.1, sense 1, but regular Sc. forms of that appear in 14th c. as ticht, tycht, and the disappearance of the ch would be abnormal. It is unlikely that OE. tyhtan, tihtan, should have become *titte in the language of the Danes in England, in accordance with the treatment of ht in ONorse itself.]
▪ X. tit, v.2 Now dial.
[Goes with tit n.2: app. an onomatopœic match to tat v.1, the lighter vowel expressing lighter action and sound: cf. tip and tap, pit-a-pat, etc.]
1. trans. and intr. To strike or tap lightly, pat, tip.
(Quot. 1589 appears to be a parody of ‘Come tit me, come tat me, Come throw a kiss at me’, quoted of date 1607 under tat v.1 This seems to have been a couplet from an old song, current before 1589.)
| 1589 [? Lyly] Pappe w. Hatchet B j b, Elderton swore hee had rimes lying a steepe in ale, which shoulde marre all your reasons: there is an olde hacker that shall take order for to print them... The first begins, Come tit me, come tat me, come throw a halter at me. 1607 [see tat v.1]. 1901 G. Douglas Ho. w. Green Shutters v. 42 He's a brother o'—eh..(tit-tit-titting on his brow)—oh, just a brother o' Dru'cken Will Goudie. |
2. † to tit one in the teeth: to cast in one's teeth, upbraid one with (obs.); hence to tit (simply), to twit, upbraid; intr. to scoff or jeer at.
| 1622 Mabbe tr. Aleman's Guzman d'Alf. i. 147 Or that it should be tit in my teeth, that I had beene at the Court, and not seene the King. Ibid. ii. 133 They would vpbraid me therewith..; Titting and flouting at me. 1629 J. M. tr. Fonseca's Devout Contempl. 424 Notwithstanding all this Absalon titted him in the teeth, saying, Is this thy loue to thy friend? 1631 Celestina xii. 146 Doe not tit mee in the teeth with these thy idle memorialls of my Mother. 1891 Hartland Gloss., Tit..to twit or teaze. 1904 Eng. Dial. Dict. s.v., To tit a person about anything. |
▪ XI. tit
obs. 3rd sing. pres. of tide v.1; var. tite adv.