bit meaning

• Noun: bit  bit
  1. A small piece or quantity of something
     "a bit of paper"; "a bit of lint"; "I gave him a bit of my mind"
     -
  Verb: bite (bit,bitten)  bIt
  1. To grip, cut off, or tear with or as if with the teeth or jaws
     "Gunny invariably tried to bite her"
     - seize with teeth 
  2. Cause a sharp or stinging pain or discomfort
     - sting, burn 
  3. Penetrate or cut, as with a knife
     "The fork bit into the surface" 
  4. Deliver a sting to
     - sting, prick

  Sounds like: bitt

  Derived forms: bits

  See also: bite off, biter, bitty [N. Amer]

  Type of: ache, case, cutting implement, example, fragment, grip, hurt, instance, mouthful, part, performance, pierce, portion, public presentation, saddlery, small indefinite amount, small indefinite quantity, smart, stable gear, tack, taste, time, unit, unit of measurement

  Part of: bridle, byte, drill, key

  Encyclopedia: Bit Bit, byte, gebissen

  Bite

• 
  [American slang]
  n. a jail sentence. (Underworld.)
  • I did a two-year bit in Sing Sing.
  • He got only a four-year bit. He was afraid of getting worse.
  
  
• 
  [British slang]
  Noun. A woman. Abb. of 'bit of fluff' or 'bit of skirt', generally a person viewed sexually. Derog.
  
• 
  [Architecture]
  1.

  A small tool which fits in the chuck of a brace or drill, and by which it is rotated—thereby cutting or boring a hole.

  2.

  The projecting blade of a key which is cut in a manner to actuate the tumblers and permit the lock bolts to be operated.

  3.

  That part of a soldering iron which transfers heat and solder to the joint.

  4.

  The cutting edge of a plane.

  

  bit, 1


[Business]
noun [C]

(IT )

the smallest unit of information that is stored in a computer's memory:

The data is transferred at a rate of about 9 000 bits per second. ⇨ BYTE

• 
  [Defence]
  built-in test
• 
  [Electronics]
  An acronym formed from the words binary digit. The smallest or elementary unit of data in digital electronics. Represented either by logic 0 (low) or logic 1 (high). These states can be represented by any dichotomy, such as off/on, false/true, minus/plus, dark/bright, red/green, etc.
  
• 
  [Oil and gas]
  The cutting or boring element used in drilling oil and gas wells. The bit consists of a cutting element and a circulating element. The cutting element may be steel teeth, tungsten carbide buttons, industrial diamonds or polycrystalline diamond compacts (PDCs).
• 
  [Computer]
  <unit> (b) binary digit.
  
  The unit of information; the amount of information obtained by asking a yes-or-no question; a computational quantity that can take on one of two values, such as false and true or 0 and 1; the smallest unit of storage - sufficient to hold one bit.
  
  A bit is said to be "set" if its value is true or 1, and "reset" or "clear" if its value is false or 0. One speaks of setting and clearing bits. To toggle or "invert" a bit is to change it, either from 0 to 1 or from 1 to 0.
  
  The term "bit" first appeared in print in the computer-science sense in 1949, and seems to have been coined by the eminent statistician, John Tukey. Tukey records that it evolved over a lunch table as a handier alternative to "bigit" or "binit".
  
  See also flag, trit, mode bit, byte, word.

• a bit:    Adverb: a bitTo a ...
• a bit of:     or a bit of  ...
• in a bit:    [British slang]Exc ...

Examples

1. but he was certainly a little bit mad.
2. his behaviour yesterday was a bit strange.
3. most of us enjoy a bit of scandal.
4. aren't you doing a bit for her?
5. you see, they are still a bit startled.