Hit | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Hĭt, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. HIT; p. pr. & vb. n. HIT-TING.] [Dan. hitte, Sw. & Icel. hitta, to hit, find; A-S. hettan, hetian, to pursue, drive, Ger. hetzen, to set on, O. H. Ger. hezan, originally to make to hate, from hazēn, Goth. hatan, A-S. hatian. See HATE.]

Sense 1. To reach with a stroke or blow; especially, to reach or touch an object aimed at, as a mark; to strike or touch, usually with force.

I think you have hit the mark. Shak.

Sense 2. To reach or attain exactly; to meet according to the exigency or occasion; to effect successfully; to attain to; to accord with; to be conformable to; to suit.

Melancholy, Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense of human sight. Milton.

Birds learning tunes, and their endeavors to hit the notes right. Locke.

There you hit him; . . . that argument never fails with him. Dryden.

Sense 3. (Backgammon.) To take up, or replace by a man belonging to the opposing player; — said of a single man standing alone upon a point.

To hit off, to describe with hits or characteristic strokes. Temple. — To hit out, to perform by good luck. [Obs.] Spenser.

Hit, v. i.

verbintransitive

v. i. 1. To meet or come in contact; to strike; to clash; — followed by against or on.

If bodies be extension alone, how can they move and hit one against another? Locke.

Corpuscles, meeting with or hitting on those bodies, become conjoined with them. Woodward.

Sense 2. To meet or reach what was aimed at; to succeed in an attempt; — often with implied chance, or luck.

And oft it hits Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits. Shak.

And millions miss for one that hits. Swift.

To hit on, or upon, to light upon; to come to by chance. “None of them hit upon the art.” Addison.

Hit, n.

noun

n. 1. A striking against; the collision of one body against another; the stroke or blow that touches any thing; — often with implied luck or chance.

So he the famed Cilician fencer praised, And, at each hit, with wonder seems amazed. Dryden.

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

Sense 2. A peculiarly apt expression or turn of thought; a phrase which hits the mark; a happy conception.

Sense 3. A partial success in backgammon; — three hits being equal to one gammon.