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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

chit.

A child or babe; a young, small, or insignificant person or animal.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/t͡ʃɪt/
  1. A child or babe; a young, small, or insignificant person or animal.

  2. A pert or sassy young person, especially a young woman.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English chitte (“a young animal, cub, whelp”), from Old English *ċytten, *ċietten, *ċitten, from Proto-West Germanic *kittīn, from Proto-Germanic *kittīną (“young animal, fawn, kid”). Cognate with Scots chit (“chit”), Low German kitte (“young animal”), German Kitz (“fawn, kid”). See also kid.

noun/t͡ʃɪt/
  1. The embryonic growing bud of a plant.

    the chits of Indian corn or of potatoes
  2. An excrescence on the body, as a wart or a pimple.

    obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English *chit, *chitte, from Old English ċīþ (“germ, seed, sprout, shoot”), from Proto-Germanic *kīþą (“sprout”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵī-, *ǵey(H)- (“to divide, part, split open, sprout”). Cognate with Middle Dutch kiede (“sprout”), dialectal German Keid (“sprout”). Doublet of chive (etymology 2) and scion.

verb/t͡ʃɪt/
  1. To sprout; to shoot, as a seed or plant.

    UK · dialectal · intransitive
  2. To damage the outer layers of a seed such as Lupinus or Sophora to assist germination.

    UK · dialectal · transitive
  3. To initiate sprouting of tubers, such as potatoes, by placing them in special environment, before planting into the soil.

    UK · dialectal · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English *chit, *chitte, from Old English ċīþ (“germ, seed, sprout, shoot”), from Proto-Germanic *kīþą (“sprout”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵī-, *ǵey(H)- (“to divide, part, split open, sprout”). Cognate with Middle Dutch kiede (“sprout”), dialectal German Keid (“sprout”). Doublet of chive (etymology 2) and scion.

noun/t͡ʃɪt/
  1. A small sheet or scrap of paper with a hand-written note as a reminder or personal message.

    UK · dated · dialectal
  2. A voucher or token coin used in payrolls under the truck system.

    UK · dialectal · historical
  3. A small sheet of paper on which is written a prescription to be filled; a scrip.

    UK · dialectal
  4. A smaller cardboard counter generally used not to directly represent something but for another, more transient, purpose such as tracking or randomization.

    UK · dialectal
  5. A signed voucher or memorandum of a small debt, as for food and drinks at a club.

    China · India · Philippines · UK · dialectal
  6. A restaurant bill or check

    Philippines · UK · dialectal
  7. A debt or favor owed in return for a prior loan or favor granted, especially a political favor.

    UK · US · dialectal · slang
Where this word comes from

From chitty, from Hindi चिट्ठी (ciṭṭhī, “letter, note, written message”). Doublet of cure.

noun/t͡ʃɪt/
  1. A small tool used in cleaving laths. Compare: froe.

    UK · dialectal
Where this word comes from

Perhaps from specialized technical use of Etymology 2, above, “a bud; an excrescence” (Hunter 1882).

noun/t͡ʃɪt/
  1. Shit.

    UK · US · dialectal · euphemistic · slang · uncountable
Where this word comes from

Euphemistic variation of shit.

intj/t͡ʃɪt/
  1. Shit.

    UK · US · dialectal · euphemistic · slang
Where this word comes from

Euphemistic variation of shit.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.