Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) a successful coup of any sort, usu. based on crime.

1716		J. Addison Drummer I i: Why, faith, thou wert a very lucky hit, that’s certain.
1719		T. Killigrew Chit-Chat I ii: A fair Hit.
1724		Defoe Roxana (1982) 359: But as it happened, things came to a hit better than we expected.
1788		‘Rolling Blossom’ in Festival of Anacreon in Wardroper Lovers, Rakers and Rogues (1995) 179: Yet every hit he brought the bit / And then we spent it rumly.
1795		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘The Royal Tour’ Works (1796) IV 85: Caesar and Drover haggle – diff’rence split – How much? – a shilling! what a royal hit!
1808		G. Colman Yngr Blue Devils 36: This is a luckier hit than the other!
1821		‘An Amateur’ Real Life in London II 96: ‘The lucky hit was all a miss.’ ‘Yes, there was a Miss taken, and a Biter bit. Love is a lottery as well as life.’.
1828		‘A Flat Enlightened’ Life in the West I 51: When he made a ‘hit,’ he immediately paid off what bills he could.
1838		R. Nicholson Cockney Adventures 3 Feb. 112: Well, this is a luckey hit.
1844		A. Smith Adventures of Mr Ledbury III 265: Those pills have been a great hit.
1849		Era (London) 3 June 3/4: As I made a hit on it over the Derby with my prophecy, I means to have another shy.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor III 29/2: I sould ’em two for three-ha’pence. That was a good hit.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 12 Oct. n.p.: The biggest ‘hit’ they [i.e. a team of pickpockets] say they made was at a ‘push’ at Folkestone.
1874		J.G. McCoy Sketches of the Cattle Trade 390: He concluded that a train load of cookstoves would be a ‘hit.’ [...] Of course the profits were enormous.
1881		Trumble Man Traps of N.Y. 25: If they make a ‘hit’ the money invariably goes into the faro bank.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 104: I seem to be makin’ a horrible hit with you to-night.
1906		H. Lawson ‘Bound for the Lord-Knows-Where’ in Roderick (1967–9 II) 197: ‘We have made a hit,’ or ‘we’ve made a bit,’ / And we’re bound for the lord-knows-where.
1913		Alaska Citizen 21 July 6/4: Fashion never made a better ‘hit’ than when she originated the stock cut with points at the sides.
1937		X. Petulengro Britain Through Gipsy Eyes 76: ‘I once had a lucky hit,’ said Jack. ‘A young toff whose uncle had died asked me to clear out some old papers and books [...] and they fetched four quid.’.
1956		‘Toney Betts’ Across the Board 309: Fusco made a hit on the horses.
1965		C. Brown Manchild in the Promised Land (1969) 167: With the Murphy, if you made one good hit, you came up with maybe two or three hundred dollars.
1970		‘Red’ Rudensky Gonif 95: We were all jumpy, but the big hit was developing.
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 47: She uttered little growls of ecstasy when she made a hit on a bag of dope.
1992		G. Disher Paydirt [ebook] [S]he was bombarding him with ideas for the Steelgard hit.
1999		Guardian G2 22 July 14: Currently proving a big hit north of the border.

(b) a success, usu. in show business.

1700		Congreve Way of the World II v: A hit, a hit! a palpable hit! I confess it.
1766		O. Goldsmith Vicar of Wakefield (1883) 31: My wife called a council on the conduct of the day. She was of the opinion that it was a most fortunate hit.
1809		B.H. Malkin (trans.) Adventures of Gil Blas (1822) I 106: They paid me a hundred compliments during supper. Not a word escaped me, but they magnified it into an admirable hit!
1825		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy I 415: After the hit I made in Monsieur Tonson, it’s d---d hard they don’t write more Frenchmen.
1832		Egan Bk of Sports 36: His performance [...] proved such a decided hit.
1843		P.T. Barnum Letter in Saxon Sel. Letters (1983) 20 Mar. 17: The ‘bitch’ appears tonight for the first time. I reckon she’ll make a hit.
1856		in G.D. Atkin House Scraps (1887) 154: Your Almanack has failed to make a ‘hit’.
1867		in K. Sampson Ghost Walks (1988) 6: Her character song is one of the greatest hits ever made.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 90: There is the Delightful Robinson in his last hit of ‘The Perambulator; or, Jemima’s Young Guard’.
1874		‘Old Calabar’ Won in a Canter I 173: [of social success] Shirkington had tired of Brighton, people had somehow or other got hold of what he had been, and he had not made the hit he calculated on.
1875		‘Aliph Cheem’ Lays of Ind (1905) 69: ‘So fair a creature in Madras will make a hit’.
1887		W.S. Gilbert ‘The Haughty Actor’ Fifty ‘Bab’ Ballads 240: This part was smaller, by a bit / Than that in which he made a hit.
1896		Ade Artie (1963) 7: He was the real papa—the hit o’ the piece.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 22: I ain’t a hit with the wimmen. [Ibid.] 36: A hoped-for ten-dollar advance on salary owing to the unexpected hit they scored!
1917		Wodehouse ‘Black For Luck’ in Man with Two Left Feet 160: I feel sure it is going to be a hit.
1927		(con. 1900s) S. Lewis Elmer Gantry 99: And to be a husky makes a hit with the whole congregation, men’s as well as women.
1929		N.Z. Truth 14 Nov. 6/4: You have only to hear him give one of his evergreen ‘hits’ to appreciate that the stage lost something when the Canon chose Book and bell.
1938		J. Weidman I Can Get It For You Wholesale 221: When I saw some of those boozehounds actually set their glasses down so they could clap their hands, I knew the line was a hit.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 34: It turned out to be the biggest hit in the history of British movies.
1966		F. Norman in New Statesman 2 Dec. in Norman’s London (1969) 203: My first play [...] was a smash hit and ran for two years and one week.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 248: She’s made a great hit with Araba’s friends, I can tell you.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 260: I’m a hit with all the wrong chicks.
1999		Indep. Rev. 10 Sept. 19: One of the hits of the decade.
2000		Guardian G2 6 Jan. 5: Didn’t they have a big hit in 1967?
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] The play became an instant hit for McNeil and drew plaudits from around Australia and beyond.

(c) (US gambling) a winning series of numbers in ‘policy’ gambling or in a lottery.

1818–19		in N.Y. Judicial Repository hit: a winning number in a lottery [DU].
1840		Morning Courier and N.-Y. Enquirer 12 May 2/4: Mrs. Fonnell it appeared made a hit of $100 on her policy.
1847		C. White Policy Players (1874) 3: Some of my heaviest players are getting discouraged [...] It would be a good idea [...] [to] let them get a hit, in order to keep their custom [DA].
1856		Porter’s Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 20 Dec. 261/3: This [lottery ticket] was number 37149, and it was a hit for $3,000, if it had been genuine instead of bogus [DA].
1871		Brooklyn Dly Eagle (NY) 9 Feb. 2/5: The poorest and lowest [...] will risk their last cent for the prospect of a ‘hit’ in policy.
1932		Northrop & Northrop Insolence of Office 60: If the [policy] player wins it is called a ‘hit.’ If there has been a big ‘hit’ or a lot of winners the banker sometimes stages a fake raid to get out of paying his losses.
1943		I. Wolfert Tucker’s People (1944) 56: All hits under $100 were paid off by the controllers.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 96/2: Hit, n. The simultaneous holding by many bettors of the winning number in the policy numbers racket.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 59: You did say you’d had a hit.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 60: [as 1957].
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 28: It’s like he would sense a heavy hit coming.

(d) a good impression.

1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ John Henry 17: Coquelin made an awful hit with my lady friend.
1908		K. McGaffey Sorrows of a Show Girl Ch. iv: She had been telling one of the members of the party who she was trying to make a hit with that she got her money from her large estates in England.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 222: You’ve certainly made the biggest kind of hit with Bat.
1925		R. Lardner ‘Zone of Quiet’ in Coll. Short Stories (1941) 73: I guess I made quite a hit with Roy’s B.F.
1932		L.E. Lawes Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing 322: Did you notice how busy those newspaper men got every time I made a hit?
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 15: Jim has made a hit with them.
1955		Kerouac letter 14 July in Charters I (1995) 496: Gregory makes big hit with Boston socialites and Harvard boys and girls.

(a) an attempted crime, esp. a robbery.

1807		Port Folio 8 Aug. 125: To nimming Ned I went to bed, / Who look’d but queer and glumly, / Yet every hit, he brought the bit, / And then we spent it rumly.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 42: A big spender, or an easy hit, or someone she’d robbed.
1970		G. Scott-Heron Vulture (1996) 87: I met Cooly [...] and told him that the hit was off.
1975		Sepe & Telano Cop Team 114: All the other hits [i.e. sexual assaults] were in Linden.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 87/2: hit n. 1 an object or act of burglary or assault [...] do a hit with the golfball eyes to carry out a theft or an assault wearing a balaclava.

(b) (UK Und.) a murder, esp. a ‘contracted’ gangster killing.

1951		M. Rackin Enforcer [film script] It was a hit. I had the contract.
1963		M. Spillane Return of the Hood 23: Nobody’s nothing with the murder squad when they think you pulled a big hit.
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 19: They traced the goddamned thing back to some guy that used it on a hit.
1985		N. Pileggi Wiseguy (2001) 107: It didn’t take anything for these guys to kill you. They liked it. They would [...] talk about their favorite hits.
1986		R.G. Barrett Real Thing 9: There’s going to be a hit on you this Saturday night.
1993		K. Scott Monster (1994) 50: She was specifically targeted and a hit was put on her.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 87/2: hit n. a (contract) killing, assault or theft.
2003		A.N. LeBlanc Random Family 108: George put out a contract on Jessica. The plan for the hit was overheard.
2004		R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] Easing up on the hits and limb dislocations.
2010		Codella and Bennett Alphaville (2011) 317: Have you ever heard of these guys putting a hit on us?
2012		IOL Cape Western News (SA) 14 Feb. 🌐 I know Monenberg . . . It’s gangland. That was a hit, plain and sdimple.
2013		K. Sampson Killing Pool 128: This kid has been hacked up. It’s not a hit — it’s a message.
2021		Breen & Conlon Hitmen 38: The real orchestrators of the hit were the Kinahans.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 225: He told Suzane about the hit and she sighed at him.
2023		A. Nette Orphan Road 39: Bent cops were suspected of facilitating the hit.

(c) (US Und.) the target/victim of an assassination.

1951		M. Rackin Enforcer [film script] A murder is a contract. A hit is the sucker that gets killed.
1967		M. Braly On the Yard (2002) 256: He was able to determine that the Hit, for that was how he thought of Juleson, the Hit moved in a limited pattern that never seemed to vary.
1971		R.T. Sale Blackstone Rangers 73: ‘If the hit is inside, then another Stone, he’ll act as a lure. He’ll go inside and he’ll find him and he’ll say, Come on out, man, like I got a reefer or some real nice wine’.

(d) (US Und.) an attack against a rival gang or gang member.

1967		in Star Trek [NBC-TV] What’s the matter? You guys never saw a hit before? [HDAS].
1992		V. Headley Yardie 64: Dem must know the hit missed.
1999		Guardian G2 12 July 17: When the victim of a mob hit protests his innocence, he is advised: ‘I got fucking Johnny Cochrane here for you’.

(a) a single drink of alcohol.

1970		G. Scott-Heron Vulture (1996) 54: I poured myself a small hit.
1979		G. Wolff Duke of Deception (1990) 170: Boys who liked to sneak a coffin nail or a hit off a bottle of Four Roses.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 20: Take a hit from the tomato jack and light a Camel.

(b) a swig of liquid, a measure of anything.

1978		R. Price Ladies’ Man (1985) 86: I had [...] a hit of coffee.
1989		C. Hiaasen Skin Tight 106: Timmy Gavigan took another hit of oxygen.
1999		J. Poller Reach 39: When I’m at work I take hits from a hipflask in the toilets.
2001		G. Pelecanos Right As Rain 203: Quinn was nearby, shouting out encouragement between hits from a can of beer.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 15: Pags [...] takes a quick hit.

(c) the effect that follows the taking of any drug or drink.

1913		J. London John Barleycorn (1989) 171: Alcohol became more and more imperative [...] I had to get the kick and the hit of the stuff.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1971		R. Woodley Dealer 57: Actually I like it better with a little cut in it, gives it a more pleasant hit.
1997		N. Barlay Curvy Lovebox 29: I get a better hit off of your sister’s pussy dandruff.
2001		Guardian Rev. 10 Mar. 2: Nice hit, yeh?
2007		D. McDonald Luck in the Greater West (2008) 129: Fadi doubted he’d like the hit of beer. He didn’t even enjoy the hit of pot.
2020		W. Boyd Trio 4: Elfrida [...] sipped at her vodka and orange juice, finishing it quickly, and then poured herself another, feeling the buzz, the reassuring hit.

(d) (drugs) a purchase of a drug.

1936		D. Maurer ‘Argot of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 1 in AS XI:2 122/2: hit. A word from the very cryptic and compact peddler-addict argot, used when delivering dope to the addict. While a direct translation is difficult, it signifies in general that the sale is consummated.
1952		Lannoy & Masterson ‘Teen-age Hophead Jargon’ AS XXVII:1 26: HIT, n. A meeting with a drug peddler.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.
1979		H. Feldman et al. Angel Dust 73: These ‘T-tabs’ cost $2 per ‘hit’ (per tablet).
1982		H. Beaton Outside In Act II: I’m always payin’ for your fucken hits.
1995		L. Stavsky et al. A2Z.
2000		Observer 2 Apr. 16: A bunch of squiffy dopeheads queuing outside their local 7-11 Drugs-R-Us for ten-bob hits?

(e) (drugs) a puff on a cigarette, marijuana cigarette or pipe.

1952		G. Mandel Flee the Angry Strangers 247: Take harder hits on it; don’t sip it like you’re scared.
1962		(con. 1950s) H. Simmons Man Walking On Eggshells 206: Man, let me have a hit off that reefer you smoking.
1976		P. Theroux Family Arsenal 72: ‘It’s the last hit.’ Brodie gave him the cigarette.
1988		D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 32: He plucked the joint from her lips and took a hit.
1996		(con. 1964-65) B. Thorpe Sex and Thugs and Rock ’n’ Roll 212: I was totally fucked-up on one hit.
1997		(con. 1960s) A. Frewin London Blues 171: Some black cat was rolling joints [...] I took a few hits and wandered out to the front steps to get some fresh air.
2001		S. King Dreamcatcher 398: ‘You want a hit?’ the one with the joint asked.
2014		M. McBride Swollen Red Sun 64: He drew long, slow hits from the joint.

(f) (drugs) a portion of any drug, a tablet of amphetamine or barbiturate; an injection or a line of heroin or cocaine, a ‘trip’ of LSD etc; cite 2012 refers to packages of heroin.

1952		Hal Ellson Golden Spike 159: Do you think you can get a hit?
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 14: ‘You want a hit?’ ‘What you got?’ Furg asked. ‘Good stuff. Schmeck’.
1977		A. Hoffman Property Of (1978) 91: You’re not holding now? [...] Don’t you know I’m carrying my last hit?
1985		Totally True Diaries of an Eighties Roller Queen 🌐 10 May I [...] went to the Roxy. I danced with Wayne. He was on a hit of acid.
1991		R.G. Barratt ‘Racist Yes, Sexist Fine’ in What Do You Reckon (1997) [ebook] Smackies gotta have a hit of heroin.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 17: Once you did your first hit, you were thinking about your next right away.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 12: When ee needs anothuh hit, or thuh money fuh oner, God, then no bastards’ safe.
2007		S. Maloney Sucked In 205: I poured my loose change into her hand [...] ‘Get yourself a hit’.
2010		K. Richards Life 297: It [i.e. heroin] was incredibly powerful [...] One hit of it pure and boom. Good-bye.
2012		C. Stella Rough Riders 125: They took my last two hits from my purse.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 251: Reggie took another hit. He hadn’t done coke in a long time.

(g) (drugs) the act of injecting a narcotic drug; the injection itself.

1957		A. Trocchi in Evergreen Rev. 61: At the third attempt she found a vein and the blood rose up through the needle into the eye-dropper and appeared as a dark red tongue in the colourless solution. ‘Hit,’ she said softly, with a slow smile.
1968		N. Heard Howard Street 230: At last he got a hit, and breathed a sigh of relief as the drug ejaculated into a vein.
1973		C. Gaines Stay Hungry 145: The biggest hit ever – eighth of an ounce of pure speed. I just shot it up.
1999		J. Ridley Love Is a Racket 255: Maybe that’s [i.e. cannabis] what kept her going between needle hits.
2001		(con. 1975–6) E. Little Steel Toes 125: Taking out her kit, [she] starts mixing a hit as she’s talking.
2001		D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 87/2: hit n. 2 an intravenous drug injection.

(h) (drugs) a puff on a crack cocaine pipe.

1987		NWA ‘Dopeman’ 🎵 Do anything for a hit or two; / Give the bitch a rock and she’ll fuck your whole damn crew .
1989		(con. 1982–6) T. Williams Cocaine Kids (1990) 107: Two men dicker about who took the last ‘hit’ (puff).
1992		V. Headley Yardie 38: The high of a crack ‘hit’ only lasted a short time.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 241: Tony sucked in a lung-numbing hit — there was some gunky resin lodged in the bottom [of the crack pipe].

(i) in fig. use, a stimulus.

1993		A. Rodriguez Spidertown (1994) 69: I believe in crack I believe in it ’cause it saved me took me out gave me a hit on high life gave me a hit on power on the juice.
2004		P. Howard PS, I Scored the Bridesmaids 207: Coming face to face with one of them [i.e. a Great White shark] would be the ultimate hit.

(a) (US Und.) a prison sentence or denial of parole.

1928		C. Panzram Journal of Murder in Gaddis & Long (2002) 49: He got five years in Leavenworth. Later on he got another and bigger hit.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
1965		B. Jackson Get Your Ass in the Water (1974) 77: The first hit you get will be a small bit / but that won’t worry you so.
2022		J. Hannaham Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit 15: With so many box hits, she couldn’t finish any of the [...] programs the knuckleheads like to see.

(b) (US Und.) an arrest or other form of problem.

1977		N.C. Heard When Shadows Fall 197: ‘You carry on with your plan, Lieutenant. But call me before you make the hit’.
1999		Official Kresky Homepage 🌐 He set me up on a bad deal and I took the hit for it.
2010		K. Richards Life 439: True friends [...] keep jumping in front of each other to save each other. Me, no, me, I’ll take the hit.

(c) (N.Z. prison) .

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 87/2: hit n. 3 a cell-search.

(d) a loss.

2003		N. Green Angel of Montague Street (2004) 33: You will make money [...] but you still gotta take a hit now and then.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Sunset’ in Broken 205: ‘Duke can take the hit’.

(a) (US) an instance, an attempt or time.

1971		H.S. Thompson Fear and Loathing 139: Second-rate academic hustlers who get anywhere from $500 to $1000 a hit for lecturing.
1985		J. Sullivan ‘As One Door Closes’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] Now it’s gotta be six or seven quid a hit these days innit?

(b) in gambling, a single card.

1988

D. Woodrell Muscle for the Wing 18: Take a hit, honey.