Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (orig. US, also hit it, ...pussy, ...that shit) to have sexual intercourse, usu. with a woman; note later US black use at hit it v. (7); thus hitter, a male copulator.

1573		‘Cambridg Libell’ in May & Bryson Verse Libel 338: Poor Fletcher cannot hit yt right, / His bolt doth some what square.
c.1595		Shakespeare Love’s Labour’s Lost IV i: Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, Thou canst not hit it, my good man.
1606		Wily Beguiled 49: Thou art my Cipherlillie; / And I thy Trangdidowne dilly, / And sing hey ding a ding ding: And do the tother thing, / And when tis done not misse, / To give my wench a kisse: / And then dance. / Canst thou not hit it?
1624		Fletcher Wife for a Month III i: If you hit her, Be sure you hit her home, and kill her with it; There are such women that will dye with pleasure.
1665		Head Eng. Rogue I 461: I would at any time (might I but chuse) The fairest White for this same Black refuse. But mischief on’t, let me shoot e’re so right, It can’t be said that I did hit the White.
1684		C. Cotton Erotopolis 109: These Academies stand open all night long, and there are some so accustomed to these Exercises, that they will hit the Mark as well by night as by day.
1696		D. Manley Lost Lover III ii: I have bin telling her, how eager all the young Fellows will be of hitting the Bride in the Face; but be-dad, I hope I shall hit her better somewhere else.
1927		in G. Legman Limerick (1953) 93: The first time I hit her / I nearly broke her shitter.
1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 123: Some white fellars feel is a big thrill to hit a black number.
1967–8		Baker et al. CUSS 125: Get hit Have sexual intercourse.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 176: They called fucking ‘hitting’ in ordinary conversation.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 15: I’ll be hittin’ the fuck out of some good pussy.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 63: Half the fun in hitting pussy was in talking about it afterwards with your boys.
2002		50 Cent ‘Wanksta’ 🎵 Now shorty think Ima sweat her, sipping on a armareda / I’m hit once than dead her, I know I can do betta / She look good but I know she after my chedda.
2012		G. Pelecanos (con. 1972) What It Was 110: I hit that thing right [...] She got some good pussy on her, man.
2012		M. Lacher On the Bro’d 110: [H]e begged like a fucking pussy to let him hit that shit.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 113: [T]here was an E-6 who’d lose his stripes fucking her in a guard tower. [...] They said he was hitting her in the ass.
2020		Cardi B ‘WAP’ 🎵 I need a hard hitter, need a deep stroker.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 45: [Y]eah, I hit dat, every man in da block run through dat.
2020		D. Whish-Wilson Shore Leave 95: He wasn’t looking forward to hearing about how much booty Lenny and Marcus had hit.

(b) to rob, to hold up; lit. and fig. uses.

1927		D. Hammett ‘The Big Knockover’ Story Omnibus (1966) 280: They hit two banks at ten sharp.
1940		J.H. O’Hara Pal Joey 31: That night I hit a crap game for about eighty clams.
1949		W.R. Burnett Asphalt Jungle in Four Novels (1984) 162: Not a knocked-out heister, maybe hitting filling-stations.
1959		W. Brown Teen-Age Mafia 11: The guy would have to eat [...] and that would be the time to hit him.
1966		J. Mills Panic in Needle Park (1971) 50: Hank goes out and hits some place and he’s got a lot of loot and he’s turnin’ everyone on and he’s some kind of hero or something and all I ever get is busted and serve time.
1975		D. Goines Inner City Hoodlum 13: Johnny had been looting for three years...he knew which carriers to hit.
1986		C. Stroud Close Pursuit (1988) 99: The Duke had hit the wrong clubhouse on a rip-off scam last February.
1994		G. Disher Crosskill [ebook] [H]e couldn’t hit the Mesics while the Outfit still had a hard-on for him.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 138: I know somewhere we can hit.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 7: All that hitting the high street banks with the jolly old sawn-off went out with sideboards and radiograms.
2006		B. Matthews Intractable [ebook] We hit the garage and cleaned it out.
2010		Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 8 Jan. 🌐 The robbers hit and took their Rolexes.
2020		D. Winslow ‘Crime 101’ in Broken 79: He gets hit just as he pulls back in to his shop—$525,000.

(c) to kill, to assassinate, thus n. hitting, an assassination.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 267/1: Maybe we hit (shoot) this fink (rat).
1953		E. Reid Shame of N.Y. 42: A kangaroo court [...] decided that Mangano would have to get ‘hit.’ In a few days the opportunity came, and even Vincent did not try to stop his brother’s rendezvous with death.
1963		M. Spillane Return of the Hood 33: If I prowl the streets, either Big Step hits me or the cops do.
1972		G.V. Higgins Friends of Eddie Coyle 86: They hit the Polack two years ago, it’s nothing concerns me.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 217: Does he plan on having me hit?
1999		J. Cameron Brown Bread in Wengen [ebook] ‘I want to resolve the problem as my husband wanted to resolve the problem’ [...] Jesus. She wanted a hitting too?
2000		W. Shaw Westsiders 225: A girl [...] suddenly collapsed on to the tarmac. ‘We thought: What happened? Did somebody hit her?’.
2006		G. Iles Turning Angel 341: Was it Cyrus who hit the Wilsons?
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] They reckon he was hit over some sort of drug money — there was a contract out on him.
2018		(con. 1963) L. Berney November Road 250: You hit one of Moe Dalitz’s guys, you’re hitting Moe himself, and then watch out.

(d) to seduce.

1957		C. Himes Imabelle 37: Man, I saw that chick and hit. Man, I struck solid gold.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 38: [as 1957].
2006		G. Pelecanos Night Gardener 101: Maybe [...] the victim had been hitting some other yo’s girlfriend.

(e) to attack, to criticize.

1977		(con. 1969) M. Herr Dispatches 41: They hit the old Brinks BOQ on Christmas Eve.
1992		V. Headley Yardie 62: I want to hit dem now!

(f) (US) to sodomize.

2000		J. Buchman ‘feeling bad for u’ posting at TonyaHarding.com 12 May 🌐 I got down and proceeded to hit her in the shitter with a one–eyed critter until she fainted.
2002		(con. 1998–2000) J. Lerner You Got Nothing Coming 30: Yo, fish [...] Y’ever been hit in the shitter?

(a) of an aphrodisiac, to take effect.

1660

Wandring Whore I 8: Here’s none but are old beaten Soldiers at that sport, and as easy with them as pissing backwards, and that is onely drying their flowers to powder, and then giving it in posset Drink, and it hits effectually.

(b) (drugs) to use or consume drugs or alcohol.

1841		J.L. Dusenbury in AS XXVI:3 (1951) 183/1: John set the decanter and after seeing us hit it to our satisfaction went to show us [...].
1902		McClure’s mag. 190: At first, if Jimmy-hit-the-bottle felt any emotion, whether joy, resentment, terror, or anything man can feel, his face did not show it.
1914		Detroit Free Press (MI) 26 Apr. 82/3: I was back in the old ways, hitting the dope harder than ever.
1918		A.N. Depew Gunner Depew 82: We [...] hit the old vino till she hollered for help .
1922		(con. 1918–19) S.V. Benét Beginning of Wisdom 289: They was both hittin’ the hop with their eyes shut.
1922		S. Lewis Babbitt (1974) 48: Oh well, I suppose I’ll hit a cigar once in a while.
1930		C.R. Shaw Jack-Roller 161: He repaid me by telling me of his experiences in life, how he started to ‘hit M’ (morphine).
1942		N. Algren Never Come Morning (1988) 144: You must be hitting it [i.e. heroin] pretty hard.
1945		Sun (Sydney) 12 Aug. 8/3: Every time Mr. Smith hit the grog, he hit her and she hit the ground.
1953		W. Brown Run, Chico, Run (1959) 37: He’d been hitting the tea, but plenty.
1969		A. Buzo Rooted II iii: gary : Been down the rubbity lately? bentley : No, I haven’t hit the hops for a couple of weeks.
1976		N. Thornburg Cutter and Bone (2001) 109: She hit her martini again and looked away.
1983		M. Read Scouting for Boys in Best Radio Plays (1984) 170: He used to swear, can you imagine? Swear dreadfully. And, I’m afraid, he hit the port rather.
1997		(con. 1970s) G. Pelecanos King Suckerman (1998) 90: The Thomas Brothers used their fingernails to hit the coke.
2003		T. Dorsey Stingray Shuffle 45: The women nodded, one hitting a roach clip, the other holding her smoke.

(c) (US campus) to use, to consume.

1896		W.C. Gore Student Sl. in Cohen (1997) 20: hit v. 1. To use; to make demands upon.
1922		M.E. Smith Adventures of a Boomer Op. 60: The way he was hitting that water cooler, he must have needed water as bad as a duck on the Mojave desert.
2009		T. Black Gutted 144: I took up my pint, drained the last of it. I had a wee goldie waiting, I hit that too.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] He don’t miss rice and beans and beans and rice as long as he can hit the Quarter Pounders.

(d) to inject narcotics.

1920		F. Williams Hop-Heads 18: ‘Hit the vein,’ he said. ‘I’m taking it right at the heart. And gimme a grain and a half of “c”.’.
1952		H. Ellson Golden Spike 138: He hit himself and, as he began to kick, he said, ‘Look at him, he wants to stay off it’.
1964		Larner & Tefferteller Addict in the Street (1966) 28: Put the spike on the dropper, strap the arm up and wait till the veins come up and then just hit directly.
1970		T. Southern Blue Movie (1974) 188: Every two hours or so, just as Les was about to come round, he would hit him with five grains of the Big M.
1989		(con. 1938) Courtwright & Des Jarlais Addicts Who Survived 133: The guy that brought us there, he would hit me and my friend, and we’d leave. I got one shot a day.
1997		Simon & Burns Corner (1998) 76: Those able to hit themselves go off to do just that.
2012		T. Robinson ‘Delivery’ in Dirty Words [ebook] ‘Looked like he’s [i.e. a heroin dealer] started hitting his own goods’.

(e) of a (narcotic) drug, to take effect; occas. of alcohol.

1926		J. Black You Can’t Win (2000) 137: That last shot didn’t hit me right; we’d better cook up another.
1938		A.J. Liebling Back Where I Came From (1990) 140: Ten cents’ worth of smoke will out-hit a pint of blended whiskey.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 58: Then the big drive hits ’n here they come out of it cryin’ like a baby ’r laughin’ like a loon.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 234: The food was simple but very good and they had a brown Swedish beer which could hit as hard as a martini.
1959		Kerouac letter 19 Oct. in Charters II (1999) 220: Mescaline is not just ‘cute’ because the very 2 hours when it really hits it’s as strong as pure big fourbutton peote shot – if not more.
1980		(con. 1940s–60s) H. Huncke ‘Florence’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 200: She had taken several Doraphen, and when the stuff hit her, she sort of zonked out.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 148: The methadone didn’t really hit till I was halfway home.

(f) to give someone an injection of narcotics.

1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 57: Hit me, Fixer. Hit me.
c.1951		N. Algren ‘Watch Out for Daddy’ in Entrapment (2009) 135: He hit me then in a way no doctor or nurse on earth ever could. It takes a junkie to fix a junkie.
1953		‘William Lee’ Junkie (1966) 144: Hit me, will you, Ike?
1971		R.D. Pharr S.R.O. (1998) 38: ‘Ray is so lazy that Leah has to come to the bedside to hit her’ [...] ‘What do you mean, Leah has to hit her? What for?’ ‘Hit: to inject with heroin. Every junky’s dream is to be the one to hit Ray Charles’.
1980		(con. 1940s–60s) H. Huncke ‘Florence’ in Eve. Sun Turned Crimson (1998) 197: Arnie gave her the stuff and asked me to hit her.
1990		(con. 1930s–60s) H. Huncke Guilty of Everything (1998) 233: I had to be hit the first time. The idea of sticking a needle into my arm terrified me.
2021		T. Swerdlow Straight Dope [ebook] — Okay, I need you to hit me.

(g) (drugs, also hit on) to take a puff of a cigarette or marijuana cigarette.

1947		J.W. Arnold ‘Lang. of Delinquent Boys’ AS XX:2 121/2: Hit on. To take a drag on a cigaret .
1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 137: He was hitting an end of weed that Five pass on to him.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 123: She hit again.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 44: She pranced back to the window hitting the joint.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 49: Linney handed Bennet the lit bone. Bennet hit it hard, kept the smoke down in his lungs.
2003		N. Green Angel of Montague Street (2004) 187: Silvano fired it [i.e. a joint] up, but didn’t hit on it.
2019		N. Walker Cherry 30: We hit the Train Wreck [i.e. a brand of marijuana] amd we felt like we were winning again.

(h) (drugs) to adulterate drugs before selling them.

1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 141: She hit again.
1979		H. Feldman et al. Angel Dust 124: We’d hit it or buff it out maybe three to one ration – three parts anoscitol corn sugar to one part PCP – and then market it as crazy coke or cannabinol.
1986		T. Philbin Under Cover 148: This is the purest. From Brazil. We cut it here. You can hit it two, maybe three times.

(a) (US) to beg, to ask for a loan, to accost.

1733		Cibber Harlot’s Progress 9: Lords and Dukes I’ll delight, / And make all the Rakes with their Ready come down, / The Stock-jobing Cit, / For a hundred I’ll hit.
1867		M. Lemon Golden Fetters II 142: I shall obtain my money’s worth—I shall be Mr. Clendon’s creditor [...] I shall hit them both; I shall touch her through her pocket, touch him through his pride.
1907		J. London Road 28: I uttered the barbaric phrase, ‘two-bits.’ You see, I was trying delicately to hit them for a ‘light piece.’ [Ibid.] 124: I ‘hit’ some firemen I found in the round-house. They fixed me up with the leavings from their lunch-pails.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 84: Domestic panhandling, or hitting back doors, is the older form.
1951		Kerouac On the Road (The Orig. Scroll) (2007) 103: I finally hit a Greek minister [...] He gave me the quarter with a nervous lookaway.
1959		W. Burroughs Naked Lunch (1968) 29: I’m going to hit this croaker I know.
1967		R. Daley Only a Game 60: ‘I got a million dollar property in Pennoyer, and the Eagles get to him three times over you, and you have the gall to hit me for a two thousand dollar raise?’.
1981		G.V. Higgins Rat on Fire (1982) 30: This is the third time I’ve been hit this week.
2000		Observer Rev. 30 Jan. 2: I approached a pretty brunette and hit her with a line Lorna had identified as a humdinger.

(b) to charge money, e.g. as rent.

1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 13: He [...] let out rooms to the boys, hitting them anything like three or four guineas for a double.
1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 143: I’ll only hit you for one zone.
2000		Guardian G2 14 Jan. 3: Didn’t the Spice Girls’ sacked manager hit them for a £15m payoff.

(c) (US black/drugs) to call someone on a pager.

1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Hit (one)/hit one on one’s hip (verb) To call on a pager.
2002		Luniz ‘Dict.’ at luniz.com 🌐 Hit Me: Call Me On My Pager.

(a) (US) to send to prison; to charge with a crime.

1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 460: They’re going to hit you with twenty to life someplace.
1986		J. Ellroy Suicide Hill 11: The judge [...] hit him with five years in the California Youth Authority Facility at Soledad.
2023		Rayman & Blau Riker’s 73: It quickly sent a message to all of the gangs that you’re going to get hit with a felony charge [i.e. for a stabbing].

(b) to raid an establishment; usu. of police.

1955		Q. Reynolds Police Headquarters (1956) 227: Wait until they come out and then grab them and we’ll hit the place.
1965		K. Marlowe Mr Madam (1967) 276: There were two other principal madams in town, for call-boys, who were being hit by the ‘heat’.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 55: Early that morning the Rican police hit our suite.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 118: I hit my first in a long series of cheap bars.
1991		C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 144: He saw the place had been torn apart [...] ‘I can’t fucking believe it,’ he said, ‘Somebody hit the place.’.
2000		G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 192: Yeah, cops’d figure it out, but they’d hafta hit the joint just right, on a make-up day.

(c) to stop and search, usu. of a vehicle.

1997

E. Little Another Day in Paradise 34: If the Man hits the van, it ain’t hot.

(a) to defeat, to overcome.

1881		Bulletin (Sydney) 12 Feb. 13/4: The Brisbane Courier has a ‘leader’ […] on the evils of gambling. It is to be hoped that none of the staff who have a weakness that way have been ‘hit’ lately.
1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 77: They think becus nobody ever hit ’em, there ain’t no sharpshooters what can.

(b) (US campus) to pass an exam with a high grade.

1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 40: hit, v. To answer all of a professor’s questions.
1924		P. Marks Plastic Age 36: Would he hit Math I in the eye.

(c) to make a successful bet; of a gambling bank, to suffer a successful bet.

1842		Flash (NY) 3 July n.p.: He sailed forth to learn his luck and, sure enough, he had hit Marsh for sixty dollars [ibid.] A fellow named Dalrymple, who makes out the policies, and if he is hit, why, he invariably refuses to pay.
1874		‘A.P.’ [Arthur Pember] Mysteries and Miseries 64: [playing keno] ‘Well, here goes for old 129! If I don’t hit this time, I’m dead beat’ .
1913		H.A. Franck Zone Policeman 88 243: Did not ‘Joe’ who slept in the next room to me at Gatun ‘hit Duque for two pieces’— which is to say he had $3,000 to sprinkle along with his police salary?
1933		W.R. Burnett Dark Hazard (1934) 27: You might hit a couple more lucky guesses and make a reputation for yourself.
1938		(con. mid–19C) H. Asbury Sucker’s Progress 93: If a player was successful, he was said to have hit, a term which was a part of the jargon of Policy as early as 1840. It is now commonly used in the Numbers game.
1941		E. Hoffman Price ‘Murder Salvage’ in Spicy Detective Apr. 🌐 I just hit a long shot at the races.
1957		C. Himes Imabelle 58: I hit the numbers for my money.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 13: The square hit Spider four times before he missed his point.
1965		C. Himes Rage in Harlem (1969) 59: [as 1957].
1972		(con. 1950s) D. Goines Whoreson 105: If you hit five licks you have to pass the dice.
1996		(con. 1949) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 160: Nick hit the number in a big way, back in ’49.
2000		G.V. Higgins At End of Day (2001) 48: Didn’t have to keep the numbers bankroll in the shop anymore — someone hit the number, Brian’s runner brought the payoff around.

(d) to delight, to make a success with.

1889

Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 11 May 198/2: Walter Andrews has hit them at the Pav. and Royal [music halls]; his dancing is simply immense.

(e) (US black) to work hard.

1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 163: ’Tain’t many mens dat will hit from sun to sun for a woman.
1997		L. Pettiway Workin’ It 229: I stayed hitting the books so that I could stay on top of my grades and shit.
2004		N. ‘Razor’ Smith A Few Kind Words and a Loaded Gun 113: They had spent the weekend hitting the books.

(f) in sport or gambling, e.g. of a racehorse or a bet, to prove successful.

1953		‘Sam Cobb’ ‘Set-up’ in Best of Manhunt (2019) [ebook] When the horses were hitting she couldn’t get close enough. Now that nothing was hitting she was going to cut me off.
1969		‘Iceberg Slim’ Mama Black Widow 68: A dime played on a gig that hits brings eighty-six dollars.
1996		(con. 1946) G. Pelecanos Big Blowdown (1999) 54: You’ll win a bundle if it hits.
2000		Indep. on Sun. Culture 30 Apr. 1: As soon as Easy Rider hit she asked me if she could have the $1100 back!

(a) (also hit up) to go to, to visit; to arrive at; the subject is usu. a person but occas. a thing (see cit. 1992).

1888		Detroit Free Press Oct. n.p.: Professor Rose, who hit this town last spring, is around calling us a fugitive from justice [F&H].
1899–1900		C.L. Cullen Tales of the Ex-Tanks 17: I never hit St. Louis that it didn’t get me down and out.
1901		‘Hugh McHugh’ John Henry 95: She could tell [...] that I wanted to pull out of the siding and hit the main line for home.
1911		J. Lomax Cowboy Songs 59: We hit Caldwell.
1917		Boy’s Own Paper XL:3 148: Tomorrow we’ll hit for Ten Bow.
1921		Dos Passos Three Soldiers 39: You just wait till we hit France.
1927		(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 7: We ought to hit the river by to-morrow night.
1934		Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld) 1 Mar. 10/4: Hittin’ Bowen with a ten quid cheque and a twenty quid thirst.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 483: Lad, I just hit town and I’m on my uppers.
1943		W. Guthrie Bound for Glory (1969) 249: Good old Pampa. I hit here in 1926.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 168: I’d like to hit for the pool but I feel too lazy.
1953		I. Hamilton Till Human Voices Wake Us 82: The other two hit the cot and stayed there.
1957		Kerouac On The Road (1972) 35: I was with Montana Slim and we started hitting the bars.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 82: I hit the high life much more than I should have.
1970		E. Tidyman Shaft 58: You could hit [...] maybe ten schools along the way.
1978		L. Kramer Faggots 110: I told you time and again since you hit this town.
1989		(con. 1950s–60s) in G. Tremlett Little Legs 29: When we hit somewhere she would put us into school.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 172: [He] cross-checked records against physical stats until he hit Lamar Hinton.
1992		I. Rankin Wolfman 134: The lunchtime edition will be hitting the streets.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 63: I knock off early and hit the bar at the social club downstairs.
2000		Hip-Hop Connection Jan./Feb. 26: They arrive doused in fog when they hit London.
2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 13: Jean Hilliker hit L.A. in late ’38.
2014		A. Fox-Lerner ‘Traces of a Name’ in ThugLit Mar. [ebook] I hit up the streets with the two guys.
2020		S.A. Crosby Blacktop Wasteland 233: Red Hill was six hours away. [...] That had him hitting Red Hill around eight.
2020		G. Krauze Who They Was 1: And jump out the whip and I’m hitting the pavement.

(b) to meet.

1917		B.E.F. Times 15 Aug. (2006) 208/2: Boulogne [...] where we hit a cove called AMLO.
2020		G. Krauze What They Was 163: I’ve seen him [...] getting his line banging with nittys calling at all hours and he hits them in Bimz’s block because it shields you from the camera.

(c) to do something, usu. involving motion.

1920		H. Wiley Wildcat 46: Ketch a truck to Chemin Blanc and hit th’ rattler fr’m there south.
1928		R. Carr Rampant Age 259: Paul hastily hit into a muffin to keep from laughing in her face.
1930		J. Lait Put on the Spot 90: ‘Hit it!’ called Goldie. With a lunge the limousine leaped forward like a frightened animal.
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 502: Okay, men, let’s hit it.
1953		R. Chandler Long Good-Bye 235: He wrote and wrote and wrote. Drunk or sober he hit that typewriter.
1962		Kerouac letter 8 June in Charters II (1999) 341: Let’s see you now really hit out the big book everybody’s expecting from you.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 61: Let’s hit it, then.
2000		Sun. Times Mag. 6 Feb. 23: Hopkins shouts ‘Hit it,’ and we dive.

(d) to switch on or off, to apply, e.g. the lights or the brakes of a vehicle.

1942		Berrey & Van den Bark Amer. Thes. Sl.
1959		E. De Roo Go, Man, Go! 6: Paul cut in front and made him hit the brakes. Paul made it by a hair.
1974		V.E. Smith Jones Men 169: Hit your parkin’ lights a couple of times.
1998		(con. 1986) G. Pelecanos Sweet Forever 34: Marcus Clay hit the gas, ascending the big hill of 13th Street.
1999		K. Sampson Powder 94: Any chance of seconds? Or shall I just hit the lights.

(e) (US black) to make graffiti on.

1974

H.L. Foster Playin’ the Dozens 148: Most of New York City's over 6,000 subway cars have been ‘hit’ (to hit something is to write on it) with graffiti.

(a) to pay, to hand over money, to bet.

1883		Daily Trib. (Bismarck, ND) 5 Sept. 11/5: He chipped in two dollars [...] and I hit her the same size and raised him five.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 243: Hit-me-with-a-dime.
1973		G.V. Higgins Digger’s Game (1981) 13: Hit him the five.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 107: I’ll hit you with it when we get paid from the city.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] Nico turned all the phones right over to Davido, who hit him back with cash.

(b) to deal out a card, usu. in imper. (cf. hit me! ).

1924		(con. 1918) Anderson & Stallings What Price Glory? 126: Hit me again.
1935		R. Chandler ‘Spanish Blood’ in Spanish Blood (1946) 9: Hit me again, Dave.
1977		L. Heinemann Close Quarters (1987) 77: ‘Stepik, hit me again.’ Stepik snaps the top card and skims it across the lumpy blanket.

(c) to give someone a drink, usu. in imper. (cf. hit me! ).

1932		(con. 1918) B.M. Harvey Me and Bad Eye and Slim 21: The men hold out their mess kits and say, Hit me hard or hit me light, like in blackjack.
1940		S. Longstreet Decade 81: Hit me again, Miff.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 191: Hit me with another Gluckenheimer.
1960		‘Nino Culotta’ Cop This Lot 219: Hit us with a beer, matey.

(d) to present, of a gesture or a grimace.

2004

E. Weiner Drop Dead, My Lovely (2005) 14: She hit me with a poker pan and a distinct lack of remorse.

(e) (US drugs) to hand over drugs (to).

2003		Simon & Burns ‘Hot Shots’ Wire ser. 2 ep. 3 [TV script] ‘You hit D?’ ‘D ain’t up’.
2020		(con. 1991-94) W. Boyle City of Margins 215: Janice [...] says, ‘Okay, hit me.’ Antonina fumbles around in her pocket and comes out with the baggie of shrooms.

(f) to telephone.

2006		Tennessean (Nashville, TN) 7 Aug. 25/5: ‘Hey man, I’ll hit ya’ back later on’.
2011		G. Hayward Corruption Officer [ebk] cap. 32: Yo’ hit me when you get off.
2012		‘Dutch’ ? (Pronounced Que) [ebook] Hit me in three days.
2019		D. Winslow Border [ebook] ‘You see anything looks like it shouldn’t, hit me’.

(a) to take.

1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 210: If we don’t get a piece of change soon we’ll have to hit a freight when we go.
1917		Wodehouse ‘Extricating Young Gussie’ in Man with Two Left Feet 29: I hit what seemed to me the happy mean. I cabled to Gussie’s mother and made it urgent.
1925		Odum & Johnson Negro and His Songs (1964) 232: Git off my money, don’t you hit my money, / ’Cause I’m a nigger, don’t cuts no figger.
1936		D. Burley in Chicago Defender 31 Oct. 26: revised dictionary hit — [...] obtain, get.
1956		S. Selvon Lonely Londoners 63: Take a plate from the cupboard and hit a pigfoot and rice.

(b) to make money, to succeed.

1964		D. Gregory Nigger 132: I told her that everything would be all right, the weather would break soon, the night club would hit.
1965		J. Thompson Texas by the Tail (1994) 54: I’m holding light, Frank [...] I need to hit.
1968		(con. c.190) J. Thompson King Blood (1989) 26: They needed to hit big.
2005		B. Coleman Rakim Told Me 73: I think that's why my first album was one that hit even more than other Juice Crew records.