hit

Etymology 1

From Middle English hitten (“to hit, strike, make contact with”), from Old English hittan (“to meet with, come upon, fall in with”), from Old Norse hitta (“to strike, meet”), from Proto-Germanic *hittijaną (“to come upon, find”), from Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eyd- (“to fall; fall upon; hit; cut; hew”). Cognate with Icelandic hitta (“to meet”), Danish hitte (“to find”), Latin caedō (“to kill”), Albanian qit (“to hit, throw, pull out, release”).

verb

1. (heading, physical) To strike.
   1. (transitive) To administer a blow to, directly or with a weapon or missile.
      One boy hit the other.
      He tried to hit me but I dodged the blow and went out to plot revenge. 1922-1927, Frank Harris, My Life and Loves
      I hunted him for half a hour, aiming to learn him to hit a man with a table-leg and then run, but I didn't find him. 1934, Robert E. Howard, The Slugger's Game
   2. (transitive) To come into contact with forcefully and suddenly.
      The ball hit the fence.
      Meanwhile the street boys kept up a shower of mud balls, many of which hit the Doctor, while the rest were distributed upon his assailants. 1882, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Doctor Grimshawe's Secret: A romance
   3. (intransitive) To strike against something.
      If bodies be extension alone, […]how can they move and hit one against another?
   4. (transitive) To activate a button or key by pressing and releasing it.
      Hit the Enter key to continue.
   5. (transitive, slang) To kill a person, usually on the instructions of a third party.
      Hit him tonight and throw the body in the river.
      FREDO: Mikey, why would they ever hit poor old Frankie Five-Angels? I loved that ole sonuvabitch. 1973, Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola, The Godfather Part II (screenplay, second draft)
   6. (transitive, military) To attack, especially amphibiously.
      If intelligence had been what it should have been, I don't think we'd ever have hit that island.
   7. (figurative, transitive, intransitive) To affect someone, as if dealing a blow to that person.
      Their coffee really hits the spot.
      I used to listen to that song all the time, but it hits different(ly) now.
2. (transitive) To manage to touch (a target) in the right place.
   I hit the jackpot.
3. (transitive, colloquial) To switch on.
   Somebody's been here! Hit the lights!
4. (transitive, colloquial) To briefly visit.
   We hit the grocery store on the way to the park.
5. (transitive, informal) To encounter an obstacle or other difficulty.
   You'll hit some nasty thunderstorms if you descend too late.
   We hit a lot of traffic coming back from the movies.
6. (heading) To attain, to achieve.
   1. (transitive, informal) To reach or achieve.
      The movie hits theaters in December.
      The temperature could hit 110°F tomorrow.
      We hit Detroit at one in the morning but kept driving through the night.
      And her success with Glover, a product of the National Lottery-funded Sporting Giants talent identification programme, will also spark relief among British officials who were starting to fret a little about hitting their target of equalling fourth in the medal table from Beijing. 2012 August 1, Owen Gibson, “London 2012: rowers Glover and Stanning win Team GB's first gold medal”, in Guardian Unlimited
   2. (intransitive) To meet or reach what was aimed at or desired; to succeed, often by luck.
   3. To guess; to light upon or discover.
7. (transitive) To affect negatively.
   The economy was hit by a recession.  The hurricane hit his fishing business hard.
8. (figurative) To attack.
   I have to say this, he hit my hands. Nobody has ever hit my hands. I’ve never heard of this one. Look at those hands. Are they small hands? 2016-03-03, Nick Gass, quoting Donald Trump, “Trump on small hands: 'I guarantee you there's no problem'”, in Politico
9. (heading, games) To make a play.
   1. (transitive, card games) In blackjack, to deal a card to.
      Hit me.
   2. (intransitive, baseball) To come up to bat.
      Jones hit for the pitcher.
   3. (backgammon) To take up, or replace by a piece belonging to the opposing player; said of a single unprotected piece on a point.
10. (transitive, computing, programming) To use; to connect to.
    The external web servers hit DBSRV7, but the internal web server hits DBSRV3.
11. (transitive, US, slang) To have sex with.
    I'd hit that!
12. (transitive, US, slang) To inhale an amount of smoke from a narcotic substance, particularly marijuana.
    Tastes like fruit when you hit it; got to have bread to get it. 2005, “Stay Fly”, in Jordan Houston, Darnell Carlton, Paul Beauregard, Premro Smith, Marlon Goodwin, David Brown, Willie Hutchinson (lyrics), Most Known Unknown, performed by Three 6 Mafia (featuring Young Buck, 8 Ball, and MJG), Sony BMG
13. (transitive, bodybuilding) (of an exercise) to affect, to work a body part.
    This is another great exercise which hits the long head.
14. (transitive, bodybuilding) to work out
    With that said, the group hitting their legs just once a week still made gains.

noun

1. A blow; a punch; a striking against; the collision of one body against another; the stroke that touches anything.
   The hit was very slight.
2. Something very successful, such as a song, film, or video game, that receives widespread recognition and acclaim.
   Marie Taglioni was another hit for Her Majesty's Theatre last season, and will be a hit again this season[…] 1848, “Her Majesty's Theatre”, in The Musical World, volume 23
   Chico & Rita opens in the modern era, as an aged, weary Chico shines shoes in his native Cuba. Then a song heard on the radio—a hit he wrote and recorded with Rita in their youth—carries him back to 1948 Havana, where they first met. February 9, 2012, Tasha Robinson, “Film: Review: Chico & Rita”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name)
3. An attack on a location, person or people.
4. A collision of a projectile with the target.
   But signalman Bridges was never to answer driver Gimbert's desperate question. A deafening, massive blast blew the wagon to shreds, the 44 high-explosive bombs exploding like simultaneous hits from the aircraft they should have been dropped from. The station was instantly reduced to bits of debris, and the line to a huge crater. January 12 2022, Benedict le Vay, “The heroes of Soham...”, in RAIL, number 948, page 43
   1. In the game of Battleship, a correct guess at where one's opponent ship is.
5. (computing, Internet) A match found by searching a computer system or search engine
6. (Internet) A measured visit to a web site, a request for a single file from a web server.
   My site received twice as many hits after being listed in a search engine.
7. An approximately correct answer in a test set.
8. (baseball) The complete play, when the batter reaches base without the benefit of a walk, error, or fielder’s choice.
   The catcher got a hit to lead off the fifth.
9. (colloquial) A dose of an illegal or addictive drug.
   Where am I going to get my next hit?
10. A premeditated murder done for criminal or political purposes.
    The questions that have always haunted the family — who ordered the hit, and why, and who in London might have known — remain unanswered. 2023-08-30, Megan K. Stack, Rob Stothard, “He Was Shot 14 Times at the Dinner Table. His Children Want to Know if Britain Ordered the Hit.”, in The New York Times, →ISSN
11. (dated) A peculiarly apt expression or turn of thought; a phrase which hits the mark.
    a happy hit
12. (backgammon) A move that throws one of the opponent's men back to the entering point.
13. (backgammon) A game won after the adversary has removed some of his men. It counts for less than a gammon.

adj

1. Very successful.
   The band played their hit song to the delight of the fans.

Etymology 2

From Middle English hit (“it”), from Old English hit (“it”), from Proto-Germanic *hit (“this, this one”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱe-, *ḱey- (“this, here”). Cognate with Dutch het (“it”). More at it. Note 'it.

pron

1. (dialectal) It.
   But how hit was to come about didn't appear. 1922, Philip Gengembre Hubert, The Atlantic monthly, volume 130
   Now, George, grease it good, an' let hit slide down the hill hits own way. 1998, Nancy A. Walker, What's so funny?: humor in American culture