slit
- to cut apart or open along a line; make a long cut, fissure, or opening in.
- to cut or rend into strips; split.
- a straight, narrow cut, opening, or aperture.
Origin of slit
Examples from the Web for slit
Contemporary Examples
Slice challah bread into 1.5 inches then slit hole in middle of each slice and fill with Nutella.
Epic Meal Empire’s Meat Monstrosities: From the Bacon Spider to the CinnabattleshipHarley Morenstein
July 26, 2014
His name was Alexander, and he had a rifle in his hands, but the eyes you could see through the slit in the mask looked friendly.
The opposite bank was manned by Germans, and in the darkness Deane-Drummond fell into a slit trench on top of a German soldier.
First the contrite-but-not-really Massa offered to slit his wrists on camera.
Historical Examples
Cut a slit in the shell of every one to prevent their bursting when hot.
Directions for Cookery, in its Various BranchesEliza Leslie
That slit had healed now, but the scar was always at his throat, and in both their hearts.
The Slave Of The LampHenry Seton Merriman
I will have the canoe drawn up, and gently, but firmly, slit it with my knife.
One Day's CourtshipRobert Barr
A hand moved slowly around the slit—a hand that held a pencil-ray.
Pirates of the GormNat Schachner
The darkness then was slit by a hard straight line of white.
The Bluff of the HawkAnthony Gilmore
slit
- to make a straight long incision in; split open
- to cut into strips lengthwise
- to sever
- a long narrow cut
- a long narrow opening
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for slit
v.
c.1200, from or related to Old English slitan "to slit, tear, split, rend to pieces; bite, sting; back-bite," from Proto-Germanic *slitan (cf. Old Saxon slitan, Old Frisian slita, Old Norse slita, Middle Low German and Middle Dutch sliten, Dutch slijten, Old High German slizan, German schleißen "to slit"). A more violent verb in Old English than after, e.g. slitcwealm "death by rending." Slit skirt is attested from 1913.A slitting-mill (1660s) cut iron plates into thin rods for making nails, etc.
n.
mid-13c., "long cut or rent (in clothes), incision," from slit (v.). Slang sense of "vulva" is attested from 1640s. Old English had slit (n.) with a sense of "a rending, bite; backbiting."