Meaning of hit in English

  1. Pronunciation

    /hɪt/

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  1. Verb

    hit

    Etymology

    late Old English hittan (in the sense ‘come upon, find’), from Old Norse hitta‘come upon, meet with’, of unknown origin

    Definitions

    1. cause to move by striking

    Examples

    • « hit a ball »
  2. 2. hit against

    Examples

    • « come into sudden contact with »
    • « The car hit a tree »
    • « He struck the table with his elbow »

    Antonyms

  3. 3. affect or afflict suddenly, usually adversely

    Examples

    • « We were hit by really bad weather »
    • « He was stricken with cancer when he was still a teenager »
    • « The earthquake struck at midnight »
  4. 4. deal a blow to, either with the hand or with an instrument

    Examples

    • « He hit her hard in the face »
  5. 5. reach a destination, either real or abstract

    Examples

    • « 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 »
  6. 6. reach a point in time, or a certain state or level

    Examples

    • « The thermometer hit 100 degrees »
    • « This car can reach a speed of 140 miles per hour »
  7. 7. hit with a missile from a weapon
  8. 8. cause to experience suddenly

    Examples

    • « 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 »
  9. 9. make a strategic, offensive, assault against an enemy, opponent, or a target

    Examples

    • « 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 »
  10. 10. hit the intended target or goal
  11. 11. produce by manipulating keys or strings of musical instruments, also metaphorically

    Examples

    • « The pianist strikes a middle C »
    • « strike 'z' on the keyboard »
    • « her comments struck a sour note »
  12. 12. encounter by chance

    Examples

    • « I stumbled across a long-lost cousin last night in a restaurant »
  13. 13. gain points in a game

    Examples

    • « The home team scored many times »
    • « He hit a home run »
    • « He hit .300 in the past season »
  14. 14. consume to excess

    Examples

    • « hit the bottle »
  15. 15. kill intentionally and with premeditation

    Examples

    • « The mafia boss ordered his enemies murdered »
  16. 16. drive something violently into a location

    Examples

    • « he hit his fist on the table »
    • « she struck her head on the low ceiling »
  17. 17. pay unsolicited and usually unwanted sexual attention to

    Examples

    • « He tries to hit on women in bars »

  18. Noun

    hit

    Definitions

    1. (baseball) a successful stroke in an athletic contest (especially in baseball)

    Examples

    • « he came all the way around on Williams' hit »
  19. 2. the act of contacting one thing with another

    Examples

    • « repeated hitting raised a large bruise »
    • « after three misses she finally got a hit »
  20. 3. a conspicuous success

    Examples

    • « 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 »
  21. 4. (physics) an brief event in which two or more bodies come together

    Examples

    • « the collision of the particles resulted in an exchange of energy and a change of direction »
  22. 5. a dose of a narcotic drug
  23. 6. a murder carried out by an underworld syndicate

    Examples

    • « it has all the earmarks of a Mafia hit »
  24. 7. a connection made via the internet to another website

    Examples

    • « WordNet gets many hits from users worldwide »