Fit

a. [compar. FITTER; superl. FITTEST.] [Cf. feat, neat, elegant, well made, to feat, to make neat, to form, to fashion, O. D. vitten, to suit, to square, Goth. fetjan, to deck, adorn, dress, Icel. fata, to clothe, fat, clothing.] 1. Adapted to an end, object, or design; suitable by nature, by art, or by culture; suited by character, qualities, circumstances, or the like; qualified; competent; worthy. That which ordinary men are fit for, I am qualified in. Shak. Fit audience find, though few. Milton. 2. Prepared; ready. [Obs.] *So fit to shoot, she singled forth among Her foes who first her quarry’s strength should feel.* Fairfax. 3. Suitable to a standard of duty, propriety, or taste; convenient; meet; becoming. Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? Job xxxiv. 18. Syn. — Suitable; proper; appropriate; meet; becoming; expedient; congruous; correspondent; convenient; apposite; apt; adapted; prepared; qualified; competent; adequate.

v. t. [imp. & p. p. FITTED; p. pr. & vb. n. FITTING.] 1. To make fit or suitable; to adapt to the purpose for which any thing is intended; to qualify; to render competent; to put into a condition of readiness or preparation. The time is fitted for the duty. Burke. The very situation for which he was peculiarly fitted by nature. Macaulay. 2. To bring into a required form; to shape aright; to adapt to a model; to adjust; — said especially of the work of a carpenter, tailor, &c. The carpenter . . . marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes. Isa. xliv. 18. 3. To supply with something that is suitable or fit, or that is shaped and adjusted to use; to furnish duly. No milliner can so fit his customers with gloves. Shak. 4. To be suitable to; to answer the requirements of; to be correctly shaped and adjusted to; as, if the coat fits you, put it on. That time best fits the work. Shak. To fit out, to supply with necessaries or means; to furnish; to equip; as, to fit out a privateer. — To fit up, to furnish with things suitable; to make proper for the reception or use of any person; to prepare; as, to fit up a house for a guest.

1Sense 1. To be proper or becoming. Nor fits it to prolong the feast. Pope. 2. To be adjusted to the shape directed; to suit; to be adapted; as, his coat fits very well.

n. [Probably from the root of fight; A-S. feoht, fight, fihitung, fitung, strife. Cf. Ger. anfechten, to make a slight attack, von einer krankheit angefochten werden, to have a slight attack of an illness, anfechtung, the attacking, affliction.]

1Sense 1. A stroke or blow. [Obs. and rare.]

Curse on that cross, quoth then the Sarazin, That keeps thy body from the bitter fit. Spencer.

2Sense 2. A sudden and violent attack of a disorder; a stroke of disease, as of epilepsy, apoplexy, and the like, which renders insensible or convulses the body; a convulsion; a paroxysm; hence, a period of exacerbation of a disease; in general, an attack of disease; as, a fit of sickness.

And when the fit was on him, I did mark How he did shake. Shak.

3Sense 3. An attack of any thing which masters or possesses one for a time; a temporary, absorbing affection; a transient possession; a paroxysm; as, a fit of melancholy, of passion, or of laughter.

All fits of pleasure we balanced by an equal degree of pain. Swift.

4Sense 4. A passing humor; a vicissitude; a sudden effort, activity, or motion, followed by relaxation or inaction; an impulsive and irregular action. “The fits of the season.” Shak.

5Sense 5. A darting point; a sudden emission.

A tongue of light, a fit of flame. Coleridge.

6Sense 6. [A-S. fitt, a song, fittan, to sing, dispute.] A song, or part of a song; a strain; a canto. [Obs.]

To play some pleasant fit. Spencer.

By fits, by fits and starts, by intervals of action and repose; impulsively and irregularly.

p. p. from fight. [Obs.]