▪ I. bitt, n. Naut.
(bɪt)
Usually in pl. bitts. Also 6 beetes, 7–9 bits.
[Derivation uncertain: some form of the word is now found in most European languages, but its history is not clear in any: in Fr. bitte, Sp. bita, It. bitta; cf. med.L. bitus a whipping-post, ‘lignum quo vincti flagellantur’ Erfurt Gloss. In Sw. beting, Da. beding; LG. and Du. beting, Ger. bäting (perh. from Sw.) ‘bitts’; with which cf. OE. bǽting, béting ‘a cable, a rope, anything that holds or restrains.’ Cf. also ON. biti ‘a cross-beam in a house or ship, transtrum,’ according to Vigfusson, the same word as biti bit, mouthful = OE. bita, bit n.2
(Franck concludes that the word is of Teutonic origin, and from the root of b{iacu}tan to bite.)]
One of the strong posts firmly fastened in pairs in the deck or decks of a ship, for fastening cables, belaying ropes, etc.; generally used in the plural. The chief pair, the riding bitts, are used for fastening the cable while the ship rides at anchor; others are the topsail-sheet bitts, carrick-bitts, wind-lass bitts, etc. Also attrib., as bitt-head, bitt-pin.
| 1593 P. Nichols Drake Revived in Arb. Garner V. 509 Two or three yonkers, which were found afore the beetes. 1612 Woodall Surg. Mate Wks. (1653) 398 A Cable as it was running out of the bits of the ship (as the Sea-men terme it). 1627 Capt. Smith Seaman's Gram. ii. 10 The Bits are two great peeces of timber, and the Crospeece goeth thorow them. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1789), Tour-et-choque, a weather-bit of the cable, or a turn and half-turn about the bits. 1836 Marryat Midsh. Easy ix, Jack stood..not far from the main bitts. c 1850 Rudim. Navig. (Weale) 97 Bitts..It consists of two upright pieces of oak, called Bitt-Pins, when the bitts are large, or of knees, when the bitts are small, with a cross piece fastened horizontally near the head of them. 1869 E. J. Reed Shipbuild. xv. 276 To keep the bitt in its proper position. |
▪ II. bitt, v.
(bɪt)
[f. prec.]
trans. To coil or fasten (a cable) upon the bitts.
| 1769 [see bitting vbl. n.2] 1833 Marryat P. Simple xv, See it [the Cable] double bitted. 1840 R. Dana Bef. Mast. x. 24 The chain is then passed round the windlass, and bitted. |
b. Sailor's slang.
| 1833 Marryat P. Simple iii, Come, Mr. Bottlegreen, rouse and bitt. 1836 ― Midsh. Easy (1863) 130 ‘Come, Easy, you are not on board now. Rouse and bitt.’ |