hit

verb

1. (physical, transitive)To strike.

   “One boy hit the other.”

   “Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill.”

   “He tried to hit me but I dodged the blow and went out to plot revenge.”

   “Bello: (Shouts) Good, by the rumping jumping general! That's the best bit of news I heard these six weeks. Here, don't keep me waiting, damn you! (He slaps her face) Bello: (Whimpers) You're after hitting me. I'll tell[…]”

   “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.”

2. (physical, transitive)To strike.

   “The ball hit the fence.”

   “a dozen apples, each of them near as large as a Bristol barrel, came tumbling about my ears; one of them hit me on the back as I chanced to stoop, and knocked me down flat on my face.”

   “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.”

3. (intransitive, physical)To strike.
4. (physical, transitive)To strike.

   “Hit the Enter key to continue.”

5. (physical, slang, transitive)To strike.

   “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.”

6. (physical, transitive)To strike.

   “If intelligence had been what it should have been, I don't think we'd ever have hit that island.”

7. (ambitransitive, figuratively, physical)To strike.

   “Their coffee really hits the spot.”

   “I used to listen to that song all the time, but it hits different(ly) now.”

8. (transitive)To manage to touch (a target) in the right place.

   “I hit the jackpot.”

9. (colloquial, transitive)To switch on or switch off (lights).

   “Somebody's been here! Hit the lights!”

10. (informal, transitive)To commence playing.

    “- I'd love to hear your band play. - Hit it, boys!”

11. (colloquial, transitive)To briefly visit.

    “We hit the grocery store on the way to the park.”

12. (informal, transitive)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.”

13. (informal, transitive)To attain, to 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.”

    “As soon as we hit Jazzafrazz Town, we were overcome by the glitz and the glamour.”

    “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.”

14. (intransitive)To attain, to achieve.

    “And oft it hits / Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.”

    “All Human Race wou’d fain be Wits, / And Millions miſs, for one that hits.”

15. To attain, to achieve.

    “Thou hast hit it.”

    “And we shall sit at endless feast, ⁠Enjoying each the other’s good; ⁠What vaster dream can hit the mood Of Love on earth?”

16. (transitive)To affect negatively.

    “The economy was hit by a recession.  The hurricane hit his fishing business hard.”

17. (figuratively)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?”

18. (transitive)To make a play.

    “Hit me.”

19. (intransitive)To make a play.

    “Jones hit for the pitcher.”

20. To make a play.
21. (transitive)To use; to connect to.

    “The external web servers hit DBSRV7, but the internal web server hits DBSRV3.”

22. (US, slang, transitive)To have sex with.

    “I'd hit that!”

23. (US, slang, transitive)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.”

24. (transitive)(of an exercise) to affect, to work a body part.

    “This is another great exercise which hits the long head.”

25. (transitive)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.

   “So he the fam'd Cilician fencer prais'd, / And, at each hit, with wonder seem'd amaz'd.”

   “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[…]”

   “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.”

3. (figuratively)A blow; a calamitous or damaging occurrence.

   “His reputation took a hit when the new information came to light.”

4. An attack on a location, person or people.
5. 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.”

6. A collision of a projectile with the target.
7. (Internet)A match found by searching a computer system or search engine
8. (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.”

9. An approximately correct answer in a test set.
10. 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.”

11. (colloquial)A dose of an illegal or addictive drug.

    “Where am I going to get my next hit?”

12. 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.”

13. (dated)A peculiarly apt expression or turn of thought; a phrase which hits the mark.

    “a happy hit”

    “What late he called a blessing, now was wit, / And God's good providence, a lucky hit.”

14. A move that throws one of the opponent's men back to the entering point.
15. A game won after the adversary has removed some of his men. It counts for less than a gammon.
16. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of)Acronym of high-intensity interval training.
17. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of)Acronym of high-intensity training.
18. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of health information technology.
19. (abbreviation, alt-of, initialism)Initialism of hyperspectral imaging technique.
20. (abbreviation, acronym, alt-of)Acronym of human intelligence task
21. (abbreviation, alt-of)Abbreviation of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia.
22. (abbreviation, alt-of)Abbreviation of herd immunity threshold.

adj

1. (not-comparable)Very successful.

   “The band played their hit song to the delight of the fans.”

pron

1. (dialectal)It.

   “But how hit was to come about didn't appear.”

   “Now, George, grease it good, an' let hit slide down the hill hits own way.”

name

1. A city in Iraq.