tit-bit, tid-bit
(ˈtɪtˌbɪt), (ˈtɪdˌbɪt)
[In 17th c., tyd bit, tid-bit, f. tid a. + bit; later also tit-bit, perh. after compounds of tit n.3
tid-bit is now chiefly N. Amer.]
a. A small and delicate or appetizing piece of food; a toothsome morsel, delicacy, bonne bouche.
| α c 1640 J. Smyth Lives Berkeleys (1885) III. 25 A tyd bit, i.e. a speciall morsell reserved to eat at last. 1701 Collier M. Aurel. (1726) 13 To be always loading the table, and eating of tid-bits. 1755 Connoisseur No. 87. (1774) III. 123 For fear any tid-bit should be snapped up before him, he snatches at it..greedily. 1834 L. Ritchie Wand. by Seine 185 The sturgeons, the finest salmons, and other tid-bits of the fishery. 1895 Outing (U.S.) XXVI. 436/2 [The coon] locating many a tid-bit by means of his sharp nose and bright eyes. 1906 U. Sinclair Jungle xiv. 162 Things..went into the sausages in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit. 1968 Globe & Mail (Toronto) 17 Feb. 28 An unusually good selection of hot and cold tid bits. |
| β 1694 Motteux Rabelais iv. xlvi, He promis'd double Pay..to any one that should bring him such a Tit-bit piping-hot. 1727 Arbuthnot John Bull Postscr. ix, How John pamper'd Esquire South with Tit-bits, till he grew wanton. 1861 J. Pycroft Agony Point (1862) 363 To see..such tarts and tit-bits. 1865 Trollope Belton Est. xxv, No more tit-bits of hashed chicken specially picked out for her. |
b. fig.;
spec. a brief and isolated interesting item of news or information; hence in
pl., name of a periodical consisting of such items.
| α 1735 Fielding Eurydice i. i, My farce is an Oglio of tid-bits. 1776 Foote Capuchin iii. Wks. 1799 II. 401 A fine girl, as I live! too nice a tid-bit for an apprentice. 1883 C. Reade in Harper's Mag. June 94/1 He furnished me..several tidbits that figure in my printed works. 1941 Auden New Year Let. i. 26 Add his small tid-bit to the rest. 1976 Time 27 Dec. 49/3 There were enough tidbits of good news last week to soothe the fears of some Ford Administration economists. |
| β 1708 Brit. Apollo No. 40. 2/2 Many of them [women] are Tit Bits. a 1814 Last Act Prol. in New Brit. Theatre II. 361 A new tit bit fresh from some author's brain. 1887–9 T. A. Trollope What I remember II. vi. 100 During the singing of the well-known tit-bits of any opera. |
c. attrib.| 1767 A. Campbell Lexiph. (1774) 56 We expedited ambassadors with plenary powers to procure us buttered buns,..tart tit-bit tartlets. 1820 T. Mitchell Aristoph. I. 167 Such dainty little schemes—such tit-bit thoughts. 1900 Jrnl. Sch. Geog. (U.S.) June 240 The danger..is that it should lead to the application of the tit-bits method to the teaching of geography. |
Hence
tit-ˈbitical,
ˈtit-ˌbitty adjs. (
nonce-wds.), of the nature of, consisting or full of tit-bits.
| 1887 Gurney Tertium Quid II. 24 He is really the tit-bittiest of composers. 1890 Speaker 5 Apr. 369/1 Those journalistic abortions of the tit-bitical kind..now so common. 1899 J. G. Millais Life Sir J. E. Millais I. iii. 81 Every tit-bitty paper..repeated the tale. |