chit

Meaning

1. A child or babe; a young, small, or insignificant person or animal.
2. A pert or sassy young person, especially a young woman.
3. The embryonic growing bud of a plant.
4. An excrescence on the body, as a wart or a pimple.
5. To sprout; to shoot, as a seed or plant.
6. To damage the outer layers of a seed such as Lupinus or Sophora to assist germination.
7. To initiate sprouting of tubers, such as potatoes, by placing them in special environment, before planting into the soil.
8. A small sheet or scrap of paper with a hand-written note as a reminder or personal message.
9. A voucher or token coin used in payrolls under the truck system.
10. A small sheet of paper on which is written a prescription to be filled; a scrip.
11. A smaller cardboard counter generally used not to directly represent something but for another, more transient, purpose such as tracking or randomization.
12. A signed voucher or memorandum of a small debt, as for food and drinks at a club.
13. A restaurant bill or check
14. A debt or favor owed in return for a prior loan or favor granted, especially a political favor.
15. A small tool used in cleaving laths. Compare: froe.
16. Shit.

Etymology / origin

From Middle English chitte (“a young animal, cub, whelp”), from Old English *ċytten, *ċietten, *ċitten, from Proto-West Germanic *kittīn, from Proto-Germanic *kittīną (“young animal, fawn, kid”). Cognate with Scots chit (“chit”), Low German kitte (“young animal”), German Kitz (“fawn, kid”). See also kid.

Related words

Descendant words

• khitz(Cimbrian) (cog)
• ket(Dutch) (cog)
• zit(English) (cog)
• Kitz(German) (cog)
• citto(Italian) (cog)
• cheti(Swahili) (der)
• சீட்டு(Tamil) (bor)

Sources

No citations have been attached yet.