Green’s Dictionary of Slang

a letter, a note.

1776		Trial of Maha Rajah Nundocomar II 10/1: The General wrote a chit, and sent it and another paper [...] to Mr. Fowke.
1785		in Seton-Karr I 114: [They] may know his terms by sending a chit [M.] [F&H].
1837		‘Nights At Sea’ in Bentley’s Misc. May 482: I showed him the chit.
1841		F.J. Bellew ‘Memoirs of a Griffin’ in Asiatic Jrnl & Mthly Register May 53: Tip us a chit, my dear fellow, by return of dawk, and believe me, My dear Marpeet, ever your’s very truly, Jonas Tippleton.
1864		Birmingham Dly Post 20 Oct. 6/3: Fashionable slang [...] borrows its phrases from almost every land, and we have ‘chit’ [...] from the east.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 36: I also tried to master what he called a Sepoy’s chit, / Some hieroglyphs on paper, oh, and such a dirty bit / That awful roll of chits I loathed, I did upon my soul.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1891		A. Wright Baboo Eng. 42: We received [...] several chits (Anglice, Letters) each informing us that a certain person had shuffled off his mortal coil.
1923		O. Onions Peace in Our Time 31: That ghastly chit from Cox’s, informing him [...] that he was overdrawn.
1928		‘The Griffin’ in Vernède British Life in India (1995) 7: A dozen more came jostling him, each proferring a ‘chit’.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 189: The man merely asked him for a chit.
1930		E. Waugh Vile Bodies 115: He sent down a chit that none of the people who’re bringing actions against the paper can be mentioned again.
1946		‘Josephine Tey’ Miss Pym Disposes 123: ‘I came with a chit to Miss Hodge, vouching for my relationship, my respectability, my solvency, my presentability, my orthodoxy—’.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 21: If ’e was short a few bob, all ’e did was write out a chit for torchlight batteries.
1966		(con. 1948–52) L. Thomas Virgin Soldiers 14: They came with little chits, certificates and notes, from sympathetic medical officers.
1980		T. McClenaghan Submariners I ii: Find your victim, persecute him till he cracks, and slaps in a drip chit.
2024		J. Meades Empty Wigs (t/s) 657: Yes yes yes - give the girl a chit. Chit! The magic word. The open sesame. That made me a Displaced Person.