tit, n.³ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

tit n.³

also tit-end

a fool; thus look an absolute tit, look a right tit, to appear a total fool, thus the school ‘witticism’, I feel a right tit.

1857		Paul Pry (London 15 Aug. n.p.: George Hy, of Charlotte-street, alias the Sneak, alias the Spongy Cove, alias the Tit, and several others.
1881		Sins of the Cities of the Plain 30: I asked her to kiss and forgive me. [...] ‘You know, Jack, I will. You were such a tit then,’ she replied.
1947		Landfall (N.Z.) Dec. 290: Why didn’t Lachlan go, the silly tit? [OED].
1967		M. Frayn Towards the End of Morning (2000) 13: He’s such a tit.
1972		K. Bonfiglioli Don’t Point That Thing at Me (1991) 44: Is your nark a little tit called Perce.
1975		A. Bleasdale Scully 147: It was just one of them interviews on telly with someone famous. I kept looking for that tit-end, Robin Day, but he never showed.
1981		A. Weller Day of the Dog 110: The stupid old tit got stuck into the metho.
1985		J. Sullivan ‘To Hull and Back’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] We’ll have to get you something Hoskins, you look a right tit.
1999		Indep. 28 Oct. 8: The Prime Minister is behaving like a complete tit.
2000		Guardian Guide 29 July–4 Aug. 28: Talking shit and mooning about like the ten-gallon tits they are.
2009		R. Milward Ten Storey Love Song 168: Seeing his mother make a tit out of herself is much more captivating.

big tit (n.)

(US) an important person, or one who thinks they are.

1968		J. Herndon Way It Spozed to Be (1970) 145: Someone had written ‘big tit’ on May’s page.
1974		J. Charyn Marilyn The Wild (2003) 85: Who’s the big tit here? Tell me the name of your rabbi.

make a tit of oneself (v.)

to make a fool of oneself.

2000		P. Howard Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 104: The old man was [...] shouting his mouth off and making a total tit of himself.
2005		P. Howard Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress 179: I’m making a tit of myself.

simple-tit (adj.)

foolish.

1961

J. Kirkwood There Must Be a Pony! 124: He [...] started laughing this simple-tit laugh of his.

stand there like a tit in a trance

said of one who is lost in thought, abstracted.

1979		F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 120: Well, don’t just stand there like a tit in a trance [...] Bust the door in.
1980		Barltrop & Wolveridge Muvver Tongue 71: There was a waiter standing there like a tit in a trance.

tit about (v.) (also tissfatart about, tit around)

to play around, to waste time, to act in a trivial, pointless manner.

1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 66: It was funny about blokes as smoked pipes. Some of them just shoved baccy in anyhow, lit it [...] Other blokes tissfatarted about for hours, and never ever got the bleeding thing sucking proper.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 142: There’s a big wide world for us out there, and we’re titting about in a panel-beater’s yard. [Ibid.] 374: All that tittin’ around just so’s David Geffen can see us play acoustic in the Serpent’s Tail?