tit n.1
1. with ref. to horses.
(a) a horse, orig. small or half-grown[SE until c.1800].
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Expedicion to Scotland 41: He rode on a trottynge tyt well woorth a coople of shillynges. | |
| ‘Cambridg Libell’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 337: A tydie Titt with pedder’s fraight / To markett comes at lengthe. | |
| Irish Chronicle 38: A nagge or the hackney is very good for traueiling [...] And if he be broken accordingly you shall haue a little titte that will traueyle a whole daie without any bayt. | |
| Damoiselle II ii: My Mare Sir: ’Twas the prettiest Tit. | |
| Citie Matrons 8: And for you [...] wee doe oblige one Titt, and two Cowes. | |
| Poems in Chalmers Eng. Poets VII (1810) 245: Being as worthy to sit On an ambling tit As thy predecessor Dory. | |
| Squire of Alsatia II ii: Poor titts, they wanten me dearly. | |
| London Spy V 114: We saw a parcel of Ragged Rapscallions, mounted upon Scrubbed Tits. | |
| Compleat and Humorous Account of Remarkable Clubs (1756) 75: Any likely Bubble hankring about any of their Tits, then down steps a Member, and [...] takes a wonderful liking to the same Beast. | |
| Street Robberies Considered 34: Tit, a Horse. | |
| ‘The Beau Monde’ in London Misc. 3: There’s your Cits that have their Tits, / In Finsbury so sweet. / But costlier Tits they keep, God wot! / In Bond and Poultney-Street. | |
| Spy on Mother Midnight I 28: If a Man goes Hunting, he has a tight little Tit, fit for Action. | |
| Tristram Shandy (1949) 65: He was resolved, for the time to come, to ride his tit with more sobriety. | |
| Homer Travestie (1764) II 16: Or, if to meet his arm you dare, / The cart tits then shall be my care. | |
| Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 315: He pull’d some hay, with which feasts / His tits. | |
| ‘The Pleasures of Brighton’ Banquet of Thalia 3: Hollo! ma’am, keep your neddy out of the way of my tits. | |
| Burlesque Homer (4th edn) I 246: These little tits of mine, I’m sure, / Can trot eleven miles an hour. | |
| Poor Gentleman III i: If you have a tumble-down tit, send him to the vicar, to give him a chance of breaking his neck. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| ‘Ya-Hip, My Hearties!’ in Moore Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 80: I soon learn’d to patter flash / To curb the tits and tip the lash. | |
| Eng. Spy I 178: Ever since you rode the grey tit last, she’s never been out o’ stall. | |
| (con. 1737–9) Rookwood (1857) 187: What daisy-cutter can match that black tit? | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Bell’s Life in Sydney 16 Oct. 1/2: Alas for the coaches and the coachmen; for the box, and the ribbons and the trotting tits. | |
| ‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 7 Mar. 3/2: After the tits bad gone in, I went down to the Spread Eagle, prigged a knuckle of pork. | |
| Era 10 Aug. 4/2: Az to ther young swell’s tit, Narcissus, take my wurd for, he’d nevver have wun if [etc.]. | |
| Bell’s Life in Victoria (Melbourne) 11 Apr. 4/4: ‘I say, master! but you brought a tidy sort o’ half-bred tit wi’ you for the big race’. | |
 | Golden Age (Queenbeyan, NSW) 28 Aug. 3/4: ‘A bay sir-well-bred-black points-racing wither-well-ribbed up-and a regular handsome tit all over’. | |
| Derby Day 36: It’s my opinion [...] as Ascapart will win in a canter. There ain’t a tit as touch him. | |
| Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 33: I could not carry a ‘help,’ as that would have increased the load of my tit too much. | |
| Autobiog. of a Gipsey 417: A blank tit shies at a Gipsy tent. | |
| Aus. Sl. Dict. 86: Tit, a favourite name for a horse. | |
| Cockney At Home 198: Perhaps you’d like to have a look at the tit, sir. |
(b) a coach horse.
| ‘Ya-Hip, My Hearties!’ in Moore Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress 81: Some wonder, too, the tits that pull / This rum concern along, so full. | |
| Real Life in London I 222: Drives his empty mail with four prime tits. | |
| Bk of Sports 4: His tits, as fine as stars, possessing the qualities of race horses for speed, blood, and bone, with harness tasteful in the extreme. | |
| Comic Almanack Jan. 78: We don’t drive our own tits. | |
| Sporting Mag. Nov. 48: I got a chaise, and a pair of fast tits to help me on the road home. | |
| Bell’s Life in Sydney 5 Sept. 2/5: The beast was [...] furiously scurrying his mangy tits to the imminent peril of the equestrians and pedestrians. | |
| Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open 127: Tits, horses. | |
| Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack 5: At other times we used to turn out the tits into a grass field. | |
| in Living London (1883) June 208: The ‘four spanking tits’ with ‘streaming tails’ [...] did their work capitally. |
2. (also tittup) a girl or woman, esp. in derog. or generic use, e.g. a tasty bit of tit, but also as a term of affection, often as little tit.
| Hellen’s Rape 2: Thus he spake to intice the minde of a lecherous young-man: / But what spurres need now, for an untam’d Titt to be trotting. | |
| Jonson Cynthia’s Revels Induction: I wonder that any man is so mad, to come to see these rascally tits play here. | |
| Alchemist V v: Cream from Hogsden [...] That, every Sunday in Moorfields, the younkers, / And tits, and tomboys should have fed on, gratis. | |
| Anatomy of Melancholy (1850) 507: A vast virago or an ugly tit. | |
| Eng. Moor III iii: The devil is in these young Tits, / And wildfire in their Cruppers. | |
| Wit Without Money IV i: That wench, I think it is [...] so made a ladder for her wit to climbe upon, for tis the tartest tit in Christendome. | |
| New Academy III i: For white-pots, pudding-pies, stew’d prunes, and Tansies. / To feast their Titts at Islington or Hogsden. | |
| Marriage Broaker IV i: There dwells, Within that house, a prettie handsome Tit. | |
| Virgil Travestie (1765) Bk IV 78: Then let us all old Quarrels quit, / Leave being such a peevish Tit. | |
| Scoffer Scoff’d (1765) 267: And if the little wanton Tit / But saw thee once, I’m sure of it, / She would both Home and Husband quit. | |
| Lucky Chance I iii: Hark ye, little wanton tit, I’ll steal up and catch ye and love ye, adod I will. | |
| (trans.) Pantagruelian Prognostications (1927) II 693: Those whom Venus is said to rule, as punks, [...] tits, pure ones, concubines, convenients, cracks, drabs, trulls. | |
| Recruiting Officer III i: Look yonder, she’s a-coming this way: ’tis the prettiest, cleanest little tit! | |
| York Spy 44: An old Maiden-head Broker came out, Gentlemen, said he, pray walk in, I have as bonny a Tit came last Night, as any in Town, I’ll let her out for Twelve pence a Stage. | |
| Provoked Husband IV i: If I don’t keep a tight Hand on my Tit here, she’ll run away with my Project before I can bring it to bear. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. n.p.: tit [...] a young prim Lass. |
| Spy on Mother Midnight 28: If a Man goes Hunting, he has a tight little Tit, fit for Action, that can ride up Hill and down Hill, backwards and forwards and every way. | |
| The Minor 41: The black-ey’d girl [...] ’tis a merry little tit. | |
| Only True and Exact Calendar title page: Madam Hopkins, from Drury-Lane, has brought us down to this Place, five of the finest Tits. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Fontainebleau in Dramatic Works (1798) II 268: A silly tit! to prefer the Colonel to such a tight lad as I! | |
| ‘Odes of Importance’ Works (1794) III 205: [They] Through St. James’s street, the Park, Pall-Mall, Oft lead their lovely giggling Tits along. | |
| ‘Crop’ in Hilaria 109: Crop once lov’d a boarding-school gig, / All his letters she stitched in her stays, / Which made little Tittup look big. | |
| Sporting Mag. May XX 119/2: ‘What’s the play, ma’am?’ said I to a good-natur’d tit. | |
| Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: Tit [...] a pretty little tit, a smart little girl. | |
| ‘The New Marriage Act’ Universal Songster I 29/1: Young boarding-school misses, those innocent tits. | |
| Old Eng. Gentleman (1847) 217: If you’re not off in a twinklin’, I’ll have you shopped, my painted tit. | |
| ‘Lady Pokingham’ Pearl 10 Apr. 31: I’ll suck your spendings for you, my beautiful randy little tit. | |
| Spoilers 55: What sort of a body is yours to worship a young tit like her with? | |
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Gingertown 11: I was a tiny tit when I started in on the stage with mah big sister. | |
| My Uncle Silas 170: You interferin’ old tit! | |
| At Night All Cats Are Grey 37: ‘Listen here, me young tit,’ he said, addressing the swaying rump-filled skirt. | |
| Grease 72: It ain’t no shit ya know, I’ll be gettin’ lots of tit [...] The chicks are gonna cream for Greased Lightnin’. |
3. generic for a person of either sex.
| Beaux’ Strategem I i: As to our hearts, I grant ye, they are as willing tits as any within twenty degrees. | |
| Spoilers 7: I’ve seen myself a size bigger ’n life, sittin’ wi’ the nobs an’ tits in Rotten Row. |
4. the vagina.
| DSUE (8th edn) 1239/2: C.18–early 20. |
In compounds
1. (also tid-bit) the penis.
| (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 44: Another again [would call it] her branch of coral, her placket-racket, her Cyprian sceptre, her tit-bit, her bob-lady. | |
| Memoirs of Madge Buford 96: I quickly devoured the tid-bit of raw flesh and washed the draughts of thick cream down with a plentious flow of saliva. |
2. (also tid-bit) a young woman, the implication is of promiscuity.
| The Minor 47: I have a tid bit at home, will suit your stomach. Never brush’d by a beard. | |
| Nancy Dawson’s Jests 36: From the luscious tit bit to the bouncing jack whore, / From the bunters in rags to the gay pompadore. | |
| Belle’s Stratagem 15: Gallop, whip, and spur for the matrimonial plate of of my dear tit-bit, Lady Touchwood. | |
| Capuchin in Works (1799) II 401: A fine girl, as I live! too nice a tid-bit for an apprentice. | |
| Nocturnal Revels 2 186: He finds there is more trouble coming at Tid-bits, than in coming into action with a Lady of experience, who is free of access and open to every onset, though perhaps not so vigorous. | |
| Sporting Mag. Jan. V 224/1: I always suspected the rogue had an eye / To a little tit-bit. | |
| Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. | |
| Manchester Spy (NH) 3 May n.p.: The woman Waterbury was not exactly a common prostitute but a ‘tit-bit’. | |
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 1 Sept. n.p.: We have had our eyes upon the ‘three beautiful ladies in black’ [...] These choice tit-bits have returned to New York. | |
| N.E. Police Gaz. (Boston, MA) 5 Oct. 6/1: [of a prostitute] J.M., the monkey-faced pimp of D. street is a dead beat. Did that titbit of his shake him off? | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 June 3/1: One of the prettiest girls in Kennebec county is a jolly little peaches and cream tidbit. | |
| Breed of the Chaparral (1949) 99: That blue-eyed tidbit belongs to me. |
3. the vagina.
| Homer Travestie (1764) I 180: If Paris cannot live without / A tit bit, you yourself may do’t; / Be you his loving wench or wife. | |
| Burlesque Homer (4th edn) II 160: [as cit. 1762]. | |
| ‘John Thomas & Peggy Perkins’ in Flash Olio in Spedding & Watt (eds) Bawdy Songbooks (2011) III 185: John Thomas, so accomplish’d, had of chatting got the knack, / That of any lady, if he chose, he could please in a crack: / Peggy Perkins took his taste so much, [...] / That she used now and then to treat him — with a nice tit-bit. | |
| ‘Sub-Umbra, or Sport among the She-Noodles’ Pearl 6 Dec. 2: Her touches, together with the thoughts of the delicious titbit I was about to enjoy, caused me to spend in a moment all over her fingers. |
4. (US) a lover.
| Life in Boston & N.Y. (Boston, MA) 22 Nov. n.p.: Her particular ‘tit-bit’ is Mr L—e. |
5. (US) the clitoris.
| Memoirs of Madge Buford 23: [He] carried me to bed, making me promise not to touch my touchy tid-bit. |
6. (US) an ineffectual person.
| Rain II 127: You want another scalp to hand to the Lord. Well, you don’t get mine, old tit-bit! |
7. (US , also tid-bit) the female breast.
| ‘Daughter of Murder’ Dan Turner – Hollywood Detective Dec. 🌐 The moonlight kissed her perkily mounded tidbits through the gossamer brassiere. |
a carter.
| ‘Epistle from Joe Muggins’s Dog’ in Era (London) 16 June 5/3: Ould fat Joe ‘ther titman’. | |
| Worcs. Chron. 12 Nov. 4/1: We have just touched for a rattling stake of sugar (i.e. a large stake of money) at Brum of a titman while he was getting on his prod. |
In phrases
(UK Und.) a stolen horse.
| New and Improved Flash Dict. |
a pleasant companion.
| cited in DSUE (1984). |
a complaisant woman.
| New Canting Dict. n.p.: willing tit [...] a coming Girl. | |
| , , , | | Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. 1725]. |
| , , | | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |
| Lex. Balatronicum. | |
| Grose’s Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. |