▪ I. chit, n.1
(tʃɪt)
[Often identified with chit n.3, but found more than two centuries earlier, and at a time when the latter (if it existed at all) existed as chīthe. Seeing how this constantly renders catulus, we may compare it with kitten, kitling. Cf. also the Cheshire dial. chit, Sc. cheet ‘puss’, and chitty, cheety a cat. With sense 2 cf. kid, cub, whelp applied contemptuously to a child: as, however, sense 1 is obsolete, it is probable that people now often associate sense 2 with chit3, as if = ‘sprout’, ‘young slip’; cf. ‘chit of a girl’ with ‘slip of a girl’.]
† 1. The young of a beast; whelp, cub; kitten.
| 1382 Wyclif Isa. xxxiv. 15 There hadde diches the yrchoun, and nurshede out litle chittes [1388 whelpis]. c 1450 Metr. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 624 Murelegus, catus, catulus, [glossed] catte, idem est, chytte. 1519 W. Horman Vulg. 109 The lyon with his roryng awaketh his chittes. 1591 Percyvall Sp. Dict., Gatillo, a chit, Catulus. 1713 C'tess of Winchilsea Misc. Poems 129 That demure and seeming harmless Puss Herself, and mewing Chits regales with us. |
2. Applied, more or less contemptuously, to a child, esp. a very young child (cf. kid); a brat.
| c 1624 Middleton Game Chess i. i, Priapus..Bacchus' and Venus' chit, is not more vicious. 1665 Boyle Occas. Refl. (1675) 340 But this lickerish Chit, I see, defeats her plot. 1682 Dryden Satyr to Muse 4 Scolding Wife and Starving Chits. 1781 Cowper Expost. 474 While yet thou wast a grovelling, puling chit. 1864 H. Jones Holiday Papers 312 When I was a naughty little chit in a pinafore. |
b. A person considered as no better than a child. ‘Generally used of young persons in contempt’ (J.); now, mostly of a girl or young woman.
| 1649 G. Daniel Trinarch., Rich. II, cccxliv, Silly Chitts they knew not what Hee mean't. 1694 Pol. Ballads (1860) II. 42 When a Nation submits To be govern'd by Chits. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. xi, As for the chits about town, there is no bearing them about one. 1812 Crabbe Flirtat. Wks. 1834 V. 267 A girl, a chit, a child! 1839 Dickens Nich. Nick. xii, A little chit of a miller's daughter of eighteen. 1840 Thackeray Paris Sk.-bk. (1872) 108 To be in love with a young chit of fourteen. 1879 Macquoid Berksh. Lady 193 He either marries a kitchen-wench, or some chit twenty years his junior. |
3. attrib. (Cf. chitty a.2, chittyface.)
| 1816 Scott Old Mort. x, He was so silly as to like her good-for-little chit face. |
▪ II. chit, n.2
[chich, chick-pea, lentil, was in 16th c. corrupted to chits, which being taken as plural, yielded a singular chit. Sense 3 is entirely doubtful, and may belong to the prec. or following word.]
† 1. = chich, chiches, or chick-peas. Obs. a. pl. chits.
| 1533 Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 90 b, Cicer, and the pulse called in latin ervum (in englishe I suppose chittes). 1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 90 a, Lenticula is a poultz called chittes, whiche..I translate peason. 1570 Levins Manip. 149/8 Chits, pulse, lenticula. 1578 Cooper Thes. s.v. Acacia, The seede whereof is lyke to chittes. 1610 P. Barrough Meth. Physick iii. xv. (1639) 124 Minister Chits wel rosted. |
b. sing.
| 1559 Morwyng Evonym. 267 A few seedes in the figure of chit or Lentil. |
† 2. A freckle or wart. Obs. [cf. L. lentigo f. lens.]
| 1552 Huloet, Chyts in the face lyke vnto wartes, which is a kynde of pulse, lenticula. a 1677 Junius Etymol., Chit, idem cum Freckle, Lentigo. 1755 Johnson, Chit, a freckle..Seldom used. |
3. pl. Small rice.
| 1856 Olmsted Slave States 477, 3,243 lbs. of ‘broken’ rice, 570 lbs. of ‘chits’ or ‘small’. In the Carolina mills the product is divided into ‘prime’, ‘middling’ (broken), ‘small’ or ‘chits’, and ‘flour’ or ‘douse’. |
▪ III. chit, n.3 Obs. exc. dial.
(tʃɪt)
Also 4 chitte, 5 chytte, 6 chyt, 6–8 chitt.
[This and its verb of identical form appear about 1600: nothing is known of their history, but it is conjectured that the n. may be a somehow changed descendant of ME. chithe, OE. c{iacu}ð in same sense. But the shortening of the long vowel in such a position, and the change of ð to t, are in the present state of our knowledge inexplicable.]
A shoot, sprout.
| 1601 Holland Pliny xiii. iv, The stone or kernell of the Date..hath a round specke..whereat the root or chit beginneth first to put forth. 1725 Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Malt, The Barley..will..begin to shew the Chit or Sprit at the Root-end of the Corn. 1886 W. Linc. Gloss., Chit, the first sprout of seeds or potatoes. ‘I have set him to rub off the chits.’ |
▪ IV. † chit, n.4
Obsolete name of a bird: the Tit, Titlark, or Meadow Pipit. [So called from its short and feeble note: cf. chit v.2 and cheet v.]
| 1610 W. Folkingham Art of Survey iv. iii. 83 May-Chit, Spawe, Churre, Peeper..Sea and Land Larkes. 1611 Cotgr., Alouette de pré, the chit, or small meddow-larke. c 1668 Sir T. Browne Wks. (1852) III. 507 The..May chit is a little dark grey bird. |
▪ V. chit, n.5 Anglo-Indian.
(tʃɪt)
a. Short for chitty.
In British use chit is commonly heard but chitty is now rare or obs.
| 1785 in Seton-Karr I. 114 (Y.) [They] may know his terms by sending a chit. 1794 H. Boyd Ind. Observer 147 (Y.) The petty but constant and universal manufacture of chits which prevails here. a 1847 Mrs. Sherwood Lady of Manor III. xxi. 294 The chit was found on Miss Crawford's dressing-table; a chit which nobody wrote, but which every body read. 1871 Athenæum 2 Sept. 296 In India the practice of writing chits, i.e. notes, on the smallest provocation has always been carried to excess. 1879 E. S. Bridges Round World 97 Everything [in Hong Kong] is done by what is called chits. 1929 Strand Mag. Dec. 526/1 The boy brought lemonade for Mrs. Wilkins, a whisky-and-soda for her husband, and a gin and tonic for me. We shook dice and I signed the chit. 1955 Times 22 Aug. 5/6 Mr. Marshall pours out a stream of comment and advice or chits to the various administrative departments. |
b. attrib. and Comb.
| 1845 Stocqueler Handbk. Brit. India (1854) 109 The apparently time-wasting system..which we shall denominate the Chit-system. 1892 A. Murdoch Yoshiwara Episode 21 Billiard tables in the hotels galore (the ‘chit’ system was in vogue in running them too). 1892 Daily News 24 Mar. 5/4 The ‘Chit system’..is the very general practice of putting the name on a piece of paper for every article that is purchased instead of paying cash down. 1924 Blackw. Mag. Aug. 264/2 For days the chit-coolies bore confidential messages. 1932 ‘A. Bridge’ Peking Picnic iii. 24 Mrs. Leroy had by this time finished entering her notes in the chit-book. Ibid. 25 ‘Do you never post letters?’ ‘Not to people in Peking... It's much quicker to send the chit-coolie.’ 1962 Guardian 2 Oct. 9/4 A chit fund [in India] roughly corresponds to a building society in Britain. |
▪ VI. chit, n.6
A small frow or cooper's cleaving-tool used in cleaving laths (Knight Dict. Mech.).
▪ VII. † chit, v.1 Obs. exc. dial.
(tʃɪt)
Also 7 chet.
[Goes with chit n.3, as its immed. source, or immediate derivative: cf. to sprout, bud, seed, etc.]
1. intr. Of seed: To sprout, germinate.
| 1601 Holland Pliny II. 22 Dill seed will chit within foure daies, Lectuce in fiue. 1610 ― Camden's Brit. i. 280 That steeped barly sprouting and chitting againe. 1664 Evelyn Sylva i. §4 To Sprout and Chet the Sooner. 1727 Bradley Fam. Dict. I. s.v. Chitting, Seed..is said to chit, when it shoots its small Roots first into the Earth. 1796 C. Marshall Garden. §15 (1813) 239 Laying it [seed] in damp mould till it begins to chit. 1883 Hants. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Chit, to bud, or germinate. 1886 W. Lincolnsh. Gloss. (E.D.S.) s.v., The corn has not chitted a deal. 1888 Berksh. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Chit, to sprout. |
2. trans. To allow (a potato) to sprout; to remove the sprouts of (potato tubers) for planting as sets.
| 1904 Daily Chron. 8 Apr. 6/4 Having chitted them [sc. ‘Eldorado’ potatoes] three times already, he has made between {pstlg}7,000 and {pstlg}8,000 out of his original purchase. |
▪ VIII. † chit, v.2 Obs. rare.
[Imitative of the sound: cf. cheet v., chit n.4, chitter v.]
intr. To chirp.
| a 1639 Ward Serm. 108 (D.) He soars like an eagle, not respecting the chitting of sparrows. |