visit

Etymology

From Middle English visiten, from Old French visiter, from Latin vīsitō, frequentative of vīsō (“behold, survey”), from videō (“see”). Cognate with Old Saxon wīsōn (“to visit, afflict”), archaic German weisen (“to visit, afflict”). Displaced native Old English sēċan (“to visit”) and sōcn (“a visit”).

verb

1. (transitive) To habitually go to (someone in distress, sickness etc.) to comfort them. (Now generally merged into later senses, below.)
2. (transitive, intransitive) To go and meet (a person) as an act of friendliness or sociability.
   She decided to visit her grandparents for Christmas.
3. (transitive) Of God: to appear to (someone) to comfort, bless, or chastise or punish them. (Now generally merged into later senses, below.)
4. (transitive, now rare) To punish, to inflict harm upon (someone or something).
   Her life was spared by the clemency of the emperor, but he visited the pomp and treasures of her palace. 1788, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume 68
5. (transitive) Of a sickness, misfortune etc.: to afflict (someone).
   There used to be a sharp contest as to where the effigy was to be made, for the people thought that the house from which it was carried forth would not be visited with death that year. 1890, James George Frazer, The Golden Bough
6. (transitive) To inflict punishment, vengeance for (an offense) on or upon someone.
   If this were an Ibsen play, we would be thinking of the sins of one generation being visited upon another, he said. 2 Dec 2011, John Mullan, The Guardian
7. (transitive) To go to (a shrine, temple etc.) for worship. (Now generally merged into later senses, below.)
8. (transitive) To go to (a place) for pleasure, on an errand, etc.
   Each year, millions of people visit the 4,570-meter-high Baishui Glacier in southern China. File:Each year, millions of people visit.ogg 2018, VOA Learning English > China's Melting Glacier Brings Visitors, Adds to Climate Concerns

noun

1. A single act of visiting.
   Next time you're in Manchester, give me a visit.
   We paid a quick visit to James on the way up to Scotland.
   There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. “Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranch shot 'em up […].” 1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock
2. (medicine, insurance) A meeting with a doctor at their surgery or the doctor's at one's home.