Noun

chit (plural chits)Category:English lemmas#CHITCategory:English nouns#CHITCategory:English countable nouns#CHITCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#CHITCategory:Pages with entries#CHITCategory:Pages with 5 entries#CHIT

1. A child or babe; a young, small, or insignificant person or animal.
   • 1859, William Makepeace Thackeray, The Virginians‎, Chapter VI:

     Madam was a little chit of a woman, not five feet in her highest headdress and shoes, and Mr. Washington a great tall man of six feet two.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

   • 1922, Petronius Arbiter, translated by W. C. Firebaugh, Satyricon‎, Chapter 56:

     “These are returns,” I said, “quite fit
     To me, who nursed you when a chit.
     For shame, lay by this envious art;
     Is this to act a sister's part?”

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

   • 2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 4, in The Line of Beauty […], London: Picador, →ISBN:

     […] he seemed to come forward from an era of sexual defiance and fighting alliances and to cast a dismissive eye over a little chit like Nick, who had never fought for anything.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

2. A pert or sassy young person, especially a young woman.
   • 1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, chapter XVII, in Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC, page 305:

     Hilda drove in silence for some time after this piece of unheard-of insolence from that chit Connie.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

Noun

chit (plural chits)Category:English lemmas#CHITCategory:English nouns#CHITCategory:English countable nouns#CHITCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#CHITCategory:Pages with entries#CHITCategory:Pages with 5 entries#CHIT

2. The embryonic growing bud of a plant.

   Near-synonyms: shootCategory:English links with manual fragments#CHIT, sproutCategory:English links with manual fragments#CHIT, seedlingCategory:English links with manual fragments#CHIT

   the chits of Indian corn or of potatoesCategory:English terms with collocations#CHIT

   • 1721, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry: Or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land, page 217:

     The Barley after it has been couched four or five days in cold Weather will sweat a little, and begin to show the Chit or Sprit at the Root-end of the Corn,

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

3. (obsoleteCategory:English terms with obsolete senses#CHIT) An excrescence on the body, as a wart or a pimple.

Verb

chit (third-person singular simple present chits, present participle chitting, simple past and past participle chitted)Category:English lemmas#CHITCategory:English verbs#CHITCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#CHITCategory:Pages with entries#CHITCategory:Pages with 5 entries#CHIT(UKCategory:British English#CHIT, dialectalCategory:English dialectal terms#CHIT)

1. (intransitiveCategory:English intransitive verbs#CHIT) To sprout; to shoot, as a seed or plant.
   • 1721, John Mortimer, The Whole Art of Husbandry: Or, The Way of Managing and Improving of Land, page 217:

     I have known it chit in seven hours after it had been thrown forth of the Cistern and within three days come enough; the Maltster being forced to stir it six, seven or eight times a day,

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

2. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#CHIT) To damage the outer layers of a seed such as Lupinus or Sophora to assist germination.
3. (transitiveCategory:English transitive verbs#CHIT) To initiate sprouting of tubers, such as potatoes, by placing them in special environment, before planting into the soil.
   • 2010, Geoff Stebbings, Growing Your Own Fruit and Veg For Dummies, page 173:

     Gardeners argue among themselves about how necessary chitting is, but I stick with tradition and do chit my seed potatoes.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

Noun

chit (plural chits)Category:English lemmas#CHITCategory:English nouns#CHITCategory:English countable nouns#CHITCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#CHITCategory:Pages with entries#CHITCategory:Pages with 5 entries#CHIT

1. (datedCategory:English dated terms#CHIT) A small sheet or scrap of paper with a hand-written note as a reminder or personal message.
3. (historicalCategory:English terms with historical senses#CHIT) A voucher or token coin used in payrolls under the truck system.

   Synonyms: chitty, scrip, tommy (obsolete)

   Coordinate term: check

4. (pharmacologyCategory:en:Pharmacology#CHIT) A small sheet of paper on which is written a prescription to be filled; a scrip.
5. (gamingCategory:en:Gaming#CHIT) A smaller cardboard counter generally used not to directly represent something but for another, more transient, purpose such as tracking or randomization.
   • 2005, Richard Hamblen, Teresa Michelsen, Stephen McKnight, The unofficial, updated Third Edition of the Magic Realm Rules:

     1.4.3 Also on the board, but turned face down at the beginning of the game, are chits representing treasure sites and sounds and warnings of monsters that may arrive on the map. When characters end a turn in the hex, these chits are revealed. As characters move around the board, more and more of these chits will be revealed, letting the players know where monsters and treasures are to be found.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

     Category:Quotation templates to be cleaned
6. (IndiaCategory:Indian English#CHIT, ChinaCategory:Chinese English#CHIT, PhilippinesCategory:Philippine English#CHIT) A signed voucher or memorandum of a small debt, as for food and drinks at a club.
   • 1901, Falk, by Joseph Conrad

     He just longed to get away from here and try his luck somewhere else, but for the sake of his sister he hung on and on till he ran himself into debt over his ears—I can tell you. I, myself, could show a handful of his chits for meals and drinks in my drawer.

   • 1913, Maurice P. Dunlap, “What Americans Talk In the Philippines”, in The American Review of Reviews, volume 48, page 202:

     The "chit system" needs special explanation. Throughout the Far East, the practice prevails of not paying for an article upon purchase. Where the soldier asks for "jawbone," the civilian usually asks to sign a "chit." In a restaurant you sign the check the waiter brings you instead of paying. You buy cigars the same way, and drinks as well. All the clubs use the system and so do the stores. At the end of each month the chits are sorted and a boy is sent out to collect their value.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

   • 1989, Greil Marcus, “The Assault on Notre-Dame”, in Lipstick Traces, Faber & Faber, published 2009:

     You might come in out of contempt for history—then you'd fall in love with the idea that you could make it, because history had assumed a debt that had never been paid—because, save in apparent trivial, vanishing moments, the debt had been forgotten, and even the chits had been lost.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

   • 2017 August 18, Dennis Heng, “Improvement of MRT train travel chit expediting processes”, in LinkedIn‎, retrieved 5 April 2025:

     There's been a series of recurring Mass rapid transit (MRT) train breakdowns in Singapore that led to delays for commuters. A travel chit system was implemented where commuters could collect these hardcopy paper chits from the affected stations as documented evidence to be shown to their employers or educational institutions that they were involved in these delays, resulting in the commuters late for work/school.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

7. (PhilippinesCategory:Philippine English#CHIT) A restaurant bill or check
   • 2007, Manuel Viloria, Asking for the Bill in a Philippine Restaurant, YouTube:

     When asking for the bill or chit in a Philippine restaurant, you can make use of hand signals if the waiter is quite far off.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

8. (USCategory:American English#CHIT, slangCategory:English slang#CHIT) A debt or favor owed in return for a prior loan or favor granted, especially a political favor.
   • 2003, Linda Fairstein, The Bone Vault, Scribner, page 98:

     Harry would call in a chit with some desk manager who owed him a favor.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

   • 2007 May 13, Patrick Healy, “In New Role, Senator Clinton’s Strategist in Chief”, in New York Times‎:

     Bill Clinton’s connections, and his endless supply of chits, only begin to capture his singular role in his wife’s presidential candidacy, advisers and friends of the couple say. […] And he is cashing in chits for her that Mr. Gore, post-impeachment, never asked him to do.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

Noun

chit (plural chits)Category:English lemmas#CHITCategory:English nouns#CHITCategory:English countable nouns#CHITCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#CHITCategory:Pages with entries#CHITCategory:Pages with 5 entries#CHIT

1. A small tool used in cleaving laths. Compare: froe.
   • 1734, The Builder’s Dictionary: Or, Architect’s Companion‎, volume II:

     Then lastly (with their Chit) they cleave their Laths into their thicknesses, by the Quarter Grain, which is that Grain which is seen to run in strait Lines towards the Pith.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

   • 1905, William Millar, Plastering, Plain and Decorative, page 90:

     This should be specially selected, cut into lengths, and split by wedges into bolts, with a dowel axe into fittings, and with a chit split into laths.

     Category:English terms with quotations#CHIT

Noun

chit (uncountable)Category:English lemmas#CHITCategory:English nouns#CHITCategory:English uncountable nouns#CHITCategory:English uncountable nouns#CHITCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#CHITCategory:Pages with entries#CHITCategory:Pages with 5 entries#CHIT

1. (USCategory:American English#CHIT, slangCategory:English slang#CHIT, euphemisticCategory:English euphemisms#CHIT) Shit.

Interjection

chitCategory:English lemmas#CHITCategory:English interjections#CHITCategory:English entries with incorrect language header#CHITCategory:Pages with entries#CHITCategory:Pages with 5 entries#CHIT

1. (USCategory:American English#CHIT, slangCategory:English slang#CHIT, euphemisticCategory:English euphemisms#CHIT) Shit.

Noun

chit m (plural chiți)Category:Romanian lemmas#CHITCategory:Romanian nouns#CHITCategory:Romanian nouns with red links in their headword lines#CHITCategory:Romanian countable nouns#CHITCategory:Romanian entries with incorrect language header#CHITCategory:Romanian masculine nouns#CHITCategory:Pages with entries#CHITCategory:Pages with 5 entries#CHIT (obsoleteCategory:Romanian obsolete terms#CHIT)

1. whale, cetacean

   Synonym: balenă

Adjective

chit m or f or n (indeclinable)Category:Romanian lemmas#CHITCategory:Romanian adjectives#CHITCategory:Romanian indeclinable adjectives#CHITCategory:Romanian entries with incorrect language header#CHITCategory:Pages with entries#CHITCategory:Pages with 5 entries#CHIT

1. only used in chit că (“even though”) and fi chit (“to be even”)

Noun

chit n (uncountable)Category:Romanian lemmas#CHITCategory:Romanian nouns#CHITCategory:Romanian uncountable nouns#CHITCategory:Romanian entries with incorrect language header#CHITCategory:Romanian neuter nouns#CHITCategory:Pages with entries#CHITCategory:Pages with 5 entries#CHIT

1. (woodworkingCategory:ro:Woodworking#CHIT) putty

See also

• pastă