Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. literary,;esp. in combs. lit. crit., literary criticism; lit. ed., literary editor; lit. supp., literary supplement.

1941		K. Amis letter 13 Jan. in Leader (2000) 4: Our lit. sec. might just as well be stone dead.
1951		(con. 1920s) S. Longstreet Pedlocks (1971) 298: His Lit. Prof. was a lean, ash-blond man with tweed suits.
1957		P. Moore Chocolates for Breakfast 30: They were both on the Lit Review.
1961		K. Amis letter 5 Apr. in Leader (2000) 587: I think I will have to not write for the Statesman just at present. This, as you well know, is no reflection on you – I’d rather write for you than for any other lit. ed.
1973		Listener 27 Sept. 416: A fairly orthodox work of literary criticism: criticism, it is true, dressed up a little and fitted into a thesis, but lit crit nonetheless.
1983		P. Reading ‘Nips’ in Diplopic 36: Not Nell Gwynn (alas), / but [...] editor of Stand / importunes our theatre queue – / ‘Come! Buy my juicy lit. mags!’.
1999		Indep. Rev. 10 July 11: More than a lit crit.
2000		Guardian Rev. 19 Feb. 10: Do lit. name drop, eg John Barth, Calvino, Gaddis etc.
2015		S. King Finders Keepers (2016) : .

2. (US) a literature textbook.

2015

S. King Finders Keepers (2016) 38: He closed his lit book. He would read the assigned stoty [...] that night.