From WordNet (r) 2.0 (August 2003) [wn]:
hit
n 1: (baseball) a successful stroke in an athletic contest
(especially in baseball); "he came all the way around on
Williams' hit"
2: the act of contacting one thing with another; "repeated
hitting raised a large bruise"; "after three misses she
finally got a hit" [syn: hitting, striking]
3: a conspicuous success; "that song was his first hit and
marked the beginning of his career"; "that new Broadway
show is a real smasher"; "the party went with a bang"
[syn: smash, smasher, strike, bang]
4: (physics) an brief event in which two or more bodies come
together; "the collision of the particles resulted in an
exchange of energy and a change of direction" [syn:
collision]
5: a dose of a narcotic drug
6: a murder carried out by an underworld syndicate; "it has all
the earmarks of a Mafia hit"
7: a connection made via the internet to another website;
"WordNet gets many hits from users worldwide"
v 1: cause to move by striking; "hit a ball"
2: hit against; come into sudden contact with; "The car hit a
tree"; "He struck the table with his elbow" [syn:
strike, impinge on, run into, collide with] [ant:
miss]
3: affect or afflict suddenly, usually adversely; "We were hit
by really bad weather"; "He was stricken with cancer when
he was still a teenager"; "The earthquake struck at
midnight" [syn: strike]
4: deal a blow to, either with the hand or with an instrument;
"He hit her hard in the face"
5: reach a destination, either real or abstract; "We hit
Detroit by noon"; "The water reached the doorstep"; "We
barely made it to the finish line"; "I have to hit the MAC
machine before the weekend starts" [syn: reach, make,
attain, arrive at, gain]
6: reach a point in time, or a certain state or level; "The
thermometer hit 100 degrees"; "This car can reach a speed
of 140 miles per hour" [syn: reach, attain]
7: hit with a missile from a weapon [syn: shoot, pip]
8: cause to experience suddenly; "Panic struck me"; "An
interesting idea hit her"; "A thought came to me"; "The
thought struck terror in our minds"; "They were struck
with fear" [syn: strike, come to]
9: make a strategic, offensive, assault against an enemy,
opponent, or a target; "The Germans struck Poland on Sept.
1, 1939"; "We must strike the enemy's oil fields"; "in the
fifth inning, the Giants struck, sending three runners
home to win the game 5 to 2" [syn: strike]
10: hit the intended target or goal
11: produce by manipulating keys or strings of musical
instruments, also metaphorically; "The pianist strikes a
middle C"; "strike `z' on the keyboard"; "her comments
struck a sour note" [syn: strike]
12: encounter by chance; "I stumbled across a long-lost cousin
last night in a restaurant" [syn: stumble]
13: gain points in a game; "The home team scored many times";
"He hit a home run"; "He hit .300 in the past season"
[syn: score, tally, rack up]
14: consume to excess; "hit the bottle"
15: kill intentionally and with premeditation; "The mafia boss
ordered his enemies murdered" [syn: murder, slay,
dispatch, bump off, polish off, remove]
16: drive something violently into a location; "he hit his fist
on the table"; "she struck her head on the low ceiling"
[syn: strike]
17: pay unsolicited and usually unwanted sexual attention to;
"He tries to hit on women in bars"
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Hit \Hit\, pron.
It. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Hit \Hit\,
3d pers. sing. pres. of Hide, contracted from hideth.
[Obs.] --Chaucer.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Hit \Hit\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Hit; p. pr. & vb. n.
Hitting.] [OE. hitten, hutten, of Scand. origin; cf. Dan.
hitte to hit, find, Sw. & Icel. hitta.]
1. To reach with a stroke or blow; to strike or touch,
usually with force; especially, to reach or touch (an
object aimed at).
[1913 Webster]
I think you have hit the mark. --Shak.
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2. To reach or attain exactly; to meet according to the
occasion; to perform successfully; to attain to; to accord
with; to be conformable to; to suit.
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Birds learning tunes, and their endeavors to hit the
notes right. --Locke.
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There you hit him; . . . that argument never fails
with him. --Dryden.
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Whose saintly visage is too bright
To hit the sense of human sight. --Milton.
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He scarcely hit my humor. --Tennyson.
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3. To guess; to light upon or discover. "Thou hast hit it."
--Shak.
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4. (Backgammon) To take up, or replace by a piece belonging
to the opposing player; -- said of a single unprotected
piece on a point.
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To hit off, to describe with quick characteristic strokes;
as, to hit off a speaker. --Sir W. Temple.
To hit out, to perform by good luck. [Obs.] --Spenser.
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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Hit \Hit\, v. i.
1. To meet or come in contact; to strike; to clash; --
followed by against or on.
[1913 Webster]
If bodies be extension alone, how can they move and
hit one against another? --Locke.
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Corpuscles, meeting with or hitting on those bodies,
become conjoined with them. --Woodward.
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2. To meet or reach what was aimed at or desired; to succeed,
-- often with implied chance, or luck.
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And oft it hits
Where hope is coldest and despair most fits. --Shak.
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And millions miss for one that hits. --Swift.
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To hit on or To hit upon, to light upon; to come to by
chance; to discover unexpectedly; as, he hit on the
solution after days of trying. "None of them hit upon the
art." --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Hit \Hit.\ adj.
Having become very popular or acclaimed; -- said of
entertainment performances; as, a hit song, a hit movie.
[PJC]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:
Hit \Hit\, n.
1. A striking against; the collision of one body against
another; the stroke that touches anything.
[1913 Webster]
So he the famed Cilician fencer praised,
And, at each hit, with wonder seems amazed.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
2. A stroke of success in an enterprise, as by a fortunate
chance; as, he made a hit; esp. A performance, as a
musical recording, movie, or play, which achieved great
popularity or acclaim; also used of books or objects of
commerce which become big sellers; as, the new notebook
computer was a big hit with business travellers.
[1913 Webster +PJC]
What late he called a blessing, now was wit,
And God's good providence, a lucky hit. --Pope.
3. A peculiarly apt expression or turn of thought; a phrase
which hits the mark; as, a happy hit.
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4. A game won at backgammon after the adversary has removed
some of his men. It counts less than a gammon.
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5. (Baseball) A striking of the ball; as, a safe hit; a foul
hit; -- sometimes used specifically for a base hit.
[1913 Webster]
6. An act of murder performed for hire, esp. by a
professional assassin.
[PJC]
Base hit, Safe hit, Sacrifice hit. (Baseball) See under
Base, Safe, etc.
From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (19 Sep 2003) [foldoc]:
hit
1. <architecture> cache hit.
2. <World-Wide Web> A request to a web server from a {web
browser} or other client (e.g. a robot).
The number of hits on a server may be important for
determining advertising revenue.
In the course of loading a single web page, a browser may
hit a web server many times e.g. to retrieve the page itself
and each image on the page. In contrast, caching by
browsers and web proxies reduces the number of hits on the
server because some requests are satisfied from the cache.
3. <jargon> To press and release a key on the keyboard. Some
prefer the less aggressive "tap".
(2000-02-20)