tit

[tit]

noun

a titmouse.

any of various other small birds.

Archaic. a girl or young woman; hussy.

Archaic. a small or poor horse; nag.

Origin of tit

1540–50; representing Middle English tite- (in titemose titmouse); cognate with Norwegian tite titmouse; akin to Old Norse tittr tack, pin. See tit²

tit

[tit]

noun

a teat.

Slang: Vulgar. a breast.

Origin of tit

before 1100; Middle English titte, Old English titt; cognate with Middle Low German, Middle Dutch titte, German Zitze, Norwegian titta; akin to tit¹

tit

[tit]

noun

tit for tat.

Origin of tit

perhaps variant of tip⁴

tit.

title.

Tit.

Titus.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for tit

Contemporary Examples of tit

Anyone “sucking the tit of the NRA,” he said, “can get off my train.”
He Humiliates Women Online and In His Strip Club, Like a Good Liberal
Olivia Nuzzi
July 13, 2014
And especially in the Middle East, the doubling down on tit for tat is an all-too-uncommon occurrence.
Is Israel Immoral to Retaliate Against Gaza?
Thane Rosenbaum
November 24, 2012

Historical Examples of tit

And they think you are resolved to break theirs: so tit for tat, Miss.
Clarissa, Volume 1 (of 9)
Samuel Richardson
To his uncomplicated nature the affair was still one of tit for tat.
Fraternity
John Galsworthy
A woman in course; that's always the case with ME, you know: but oh, Tit!
The Paris Sketch Book of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh
William Makepeace Thackeray
The affair now had simmered down to plain temper and tit for tat.
Desert Dust
Edwin L. Sabin
Well, considering Harrison's qualifications, it might still not be tit for tat.
Citadel
Algirdas Jonas Budrys

British Dictionary definitions for tit

tit

noun

any of numerous small active Old World songbirds of the family Paridae (titmice), esp those of the genus Parus (bluetit, great tit, etc). They have a short bill and feed on insects and seeds

any of various similar small birds

archaic, or dialect a worthless or worn-out horse; nag

Word Origin for tit

C16: perhaps of imitative origin, applied to small animate or inanimate objects; compare Icelandic tittr pin

tit

noun

slang a female breast

a teat or nipple

derogatory a girl or young woman

slang a despicable or unpleasant person: often used as a term of address

Word Origin for tit

Old English titt; related to Middle Low German title, Norwegian titta

Tit.

abbreviation for

Titus

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for tit

n.1

"breast," Old English titt (a variant of teat). But the modern slang tits (plural), attested from 1928, seems to be a recent reinvention from teat, used without awareness that it is a throwback to the original form. Titty, however, is on record from 1746 as "a dial. and nursery diminutive of teat."

n.2

1540s, "any small animal or object" (as in compound forms such as titmouse, tomtit, etc.); also used of small horses. Similar words in related senses are found in Scandinavian (cf. Icelandic tittr, Norwegian tita "a little bird"), but the connection and origin are obscure; perhaps, as OED suggests, the word is merely suggestive of something small. Used figuratively of persons after 1734, but earlier for "a girl or young woman," usually in deprecatory sense of "a hussy, minx" (1590s).