hit 
6. In backgammon: (o) A move made by a play- 
er which puts one of his opponent's men for a 
time out of play and compels him to return to 
the original starting-place. (6) A game won by 
a player after his opponent has thrown off one 
or more men from the board, as distinguished 
from a gammon and a backgammon. 7. A good 
crop. [Prov. Eng.] -Gallery hit. See gallery. 
hit 2 (hit), pron. The original form of the neuter 
pronoun it. It is still found in dialectal use, but some- 
times (as in negro speech) it is rather an accidental re- 
version to than a survival of the original aspirated form. 
See Ael and it. Chaucer. 
Hit is in common use in Scotland for the neuter pro- 
noun it. This is a survival of an old form. Scotsmen do 
not make the mistake of using the aspirate where it should 
not be. N. and Q., 7th ser., III. 112. 
hit 3 t. A (Middle English) contracted form of 
hideth, third person singular present indicative 
hitamite (hit'a-mlt), . The dobson or hell- 
AliUOiUllUC lUV 0-uuuy, II. illtj UUUBUU Ul Iltjil- 
grammite. [E'eading, Pennsylvania, U. S.] 
hitch (hich), v. [< ME. hitchen, hytchen, hichen, 
hychen; origin uncertain : (1) appar. an assib- 
ilated form of the verb which remains in mod. E. 
dial. hick, hop, spring, hike, swing, toss, throw, 
etc. (see hick\ hike) : cf. Or. dial, hicken, Mckeln, 
hicksen, equiv. to G. (nasalized) hinken (> prob. 
Sw. hinka, Dan. hinke), go lame, limp, hobble ; 
or (2) perhaps < OD.hutsen,D. hotsen, shake, jolt, 
jog, >ult. E. (So.) hotch, move by jerks : see hatch 
and hustle.] I. intrans. 1. To move by jerks or 
with pauses or rests; hop; hobble; halt; limp, 
literally or figuratively : as, to hitch along on 
the ground ; verse that hitches. 
When the water began to ascend up to their refuged 
hills, and the place of their hope became an island, lo, 
now they hitch up higher to the tops of the tallest trees. 
Rev. T. Adams, Works, III. 71. 
Weary of long standing, to ease themselves a little by 
hitching into another place. Fuller. 
Whoe'er offends, at some unlucky time 
Slides into verse, and hitches in a rhyme. 
Pope, Imit. of Horace, II. i. 78. 
Punishment this day hitches (if she still hitch) after 
Crime with frightful shoes-of-swiftness. 
Carlyle, French Rev., I. v. 5. 
2. To be fastened, entangled, or snarled; catch. 
We are told that there was an infinite innumerable 
company of little bodies, called atoms, from all eternity, 
flying and roving about in a void space, which at length 
hitched together and united. South, Works, IX. iii. 
Set your opinion at whatever pitch, 
Knots and impediments make something hitch. 
Cowper, Conversation, 1. 98. 
3. To strike the feet together in going; inter- 
fere, as a horse. [Eng.] 4. To get on with 
another, as if in harness; work smoothly to- 
gether. [Colloq.] 
I ... have come to drive a spell for this old fellow, but 
I guess we shan't hitch long. 
Mrs. Clavers, Forest Life, I. 116. 
To hitch up, to harness a horse or horses to a vehicle ; 
make ready for driving. [Colloq.] 
I was much amused at the lofty air with which the fat 
driver ordered his assistants to hitch up quickly. 
Letters t/roin the South, II. 117. 
He would hitch up at once and drive over to Elyria. 
E. E. Hale, Ten Times One, iv. 
II. trans. 1. To pull up; raise by jerks. 
Some special powers with which his legs were endowed 
had already hitched up his glossy trousers at the ankles. 
Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, ii. 10. 
Here comes a great hulking sailor ; his face beams with 
honesty, he rolls in his gait, he hitches up his wide trou- 
sers, he wears his shiny hat at the back of his head ; his 
hair hangs in ringlets ; he chews a quid. 
W. Besant, Fifty Years Ago, p. 61. 
2. To fasten, especially in a temporary or oc- 
casional way; make fast; tether; tie up by 
means of a hook, a ring, a bridle, a rope, etc. 
"As true as you live, mother," said Aunt Lois, who had 
tripped to the window, "there's Miss Asphyxia Smith 
hitching her horse at our picket fence." 
H. B. Stowe, Oldtown, p. 236. 
Sometimes the crab hitches one of its claws into some 
crack or fissure. Owen, Anat., xiv. 
3. Naut., to cover with a network of twine or 
small cord, worked with one end To hitch 
horses, to agree ; join interests. [Colloq.] 
After he poked his fist in my face, one election, we 
never hitched horses together. McClintock, Tales. 
hitch (hich), n. [< hitch, v.] 1. A pull or 
jerk upward : as, to give one's trousers a hitch. 
2. The act of catching or fastening, as on a 
hook, a post, etc. 3. A halt; an impediment; 
a stoppage ; an obstruction, especially of an 
unexpected and temporary nature : as, a hitch 
in the proceedings ; a hitch in one's gait. 
With pert jirk forward, and little hitch in my gait like 
a scholastick beau. Steele, Lying Lover, i. 1. 
I, clove-hitch ; 
2, timber-hitch ; 3, Black- 
wall hitch. 
2844 
I am credibly informed that there is still a considerable 
hitch or hobble in your enunciation. Chesterfield, Letters. 
There are many hitclies in the evolution ethic, as Dr. 
Martineau shows ; and it is well for us that there are ; for 
serious consequences would result from its scientific es- 
tablishment. Sew Princeton Rev., I. 188. 
4. In wining, a slight fault or dislocation. 
5. Temporary assistance; timely help: as, 
to lend one a 
hitch. [Colloq.] 
6. Naut., a 
knot or noose 
in a rope for 
making it fast 
to another rope 
or to a spar or 
other object : 
as, a clove- 
hitch, a rolling 
hitch, etc. 7. 
pi. In whaling, 
the fastening 
oftheironstrap 
on the socket of 
a toggle-iron. 
-Becket-hltch, 
a sheet-bend ; a 
single bend or a 
weaver's hitch. 
Black-wall or 
Backwall hitch, 
a hitch made with 
a rope over a hook 
so that it will jam 
during a strain 
on the rope, and 
be easily detach- 
ed when the strain is relieved. Diamond hitch, a pe- 
culiar hitch or interlacing of the ropes in fastening a 
pack or "packing," so arranged as to form a diamond 
(=^=~.) on the top of the pack, the weight of the pack 
serving to tighten the hitch. 
The Missourian was an expert packer, versed in the mys- 
teries of the diamond hitch, the only arrangement of the 
ropes that will insure a load staying in its place. 
T. Roosevelt, The Century, XXXVI. 202. 
Magnus hitch (naut.\ a peculiar way of fastening a rope 
to a spar, consisting in a round turn about the spar, with 
a half-hitch on the standing part. Rolling hitch (naut.), 
a hitch made by passing the end of a rope twice round 
another rope or a spar in such a way that the hauling 
part will jam these two turns, and then securing the end 
by a half-hitch. 
hitchcockt, n. A variant of Itickock, for hiccup. 
Baret, Alvearie, 1570. 
hitchelt, v. t. An obsolete form of hatchel. 
hitcher (hich'er), n. I. One who or that which 
hitches, in any sense. 2. A boat-hook. E. H. 
Knight. 
And when they could not cause him to rise, one of them 
tooke a hitcher, or long boate-hooke, and lutch'd in the 
sicke mans breeches, drawing him backward. 
John Taylor, Works (1630). 
hitchily (hich'i-li), adv. By jerks ; unevenly. 
Things go more hitchily the first year [after marriage] 
than ever they do afterward. 
W. D. Howells, Wedding Journey, ii. 
hitchiness (hich'i-nes), n. 
tion or obstruction. 
You must be careful not to contradict me, or cross me 
in anything. . . . The great object is not to have any 
hitchiness. W. D. Howells, Wedding Journey, ii. 
hitching-bar (hich'ing-bar), n. A rail or bar 
set horizontally upon posts, and having rings 
or holes, to which horses are tethered or hitched : 
commonly fixed in front of a tavern. [U. 8.] 
hitching-clamp (hich'ing-klamp), . A form 
of cam used in fastening a horse to a hitching- 
post. The hitching strap is passed through it in such a 
way that the harder the horse pulls upon it the tighter 
it binds. 
hitching-post (hich'ing-post), n. A post to 
which horses are hitched or tethered. 
Further down were the shops, each with its row of hitch- 
ing-posti across the front Harpers Mag., LXXVIII. 443. 
hitchy (hich'i), a. [< hitch, n., + -y.~} Charac- 
terized by hitches or jerks; interrupted by tem- 
porary obstructions. 
hithe, n. [< ME. hithe, hythe, < AS. hyfli, a port 
or haven.] A port or haven. The word is obso- 
lete except as used in the names of a few English places, 
as Hythe, Rotherhithe, Queenhithe, Lambeth (Anglo-Saxon 
Lamuehlth, LambhUh). 
When the hithe fell into the hands of King Stephen, he 
bestowed it on William de Ypres. 
Pennant, London, p. 473. 
The hythe or port which tradition fixed in the modern 
Bucklersbury. J. R. Green, Conq. of Eng., p. 438. 
hither (hiTH'fer), adv. [With change of d to th 
(dh), as in thither, whither, father, mother, etc. ; 
< ME. hider, hidere, hidre, heder, < AS. hider 
(sometimes hidres, in the phrase nidres thidres, 
usually hider and thider, hither and thither; the 
form hither is found once, appar. miswritten) 
= Icel. hedhra = Sw. hit = Dan. hid = Goth. 
Frequent interrup- 
hitherward 
hidre, hither, = L. citra, on this side (see cis-), 
< lit-, the pronominal base of he, him, here, etc., 
+ -der, -dra, compar. suffix, = -mar, -ter, in whe- 
ther, after, etc. Cf. thither and whither.} 1. To 
this place: used with verbs signifying motion: 
as, to come hither; to bring hither. 
I a-bide after Merlin, that sholde come heder to speke 
with me. Merlin (E. E. T. S.), I. 45. 
Who doth ambition shun, . . . 
Come hither, come hither, come hither; 
Here shall he see 
No enemy 
But winter and rough weather. 
Shak., As you Like it, ii. 5 (song). 
Many doe informe me, your comming hither is not for 
trade, but to invade my people. 
Quoted in Capt. John Smith's Works, I. 208. 
2f. To this time ; up to the present time. 
From that tyme hidre, the Sowdan clepethe him self 
Calyffee. MandeviUe, Travels, p. 44. 
3. To this point; to this end; to this argument 
or conclusion. [Bare.] 
Hither we refer whatever belongs to the highest perfec- 
tion of man. Hooker. 
Hither and thither, to this place and to that ; back and 
forth. 
The disowned of all parties, the rejected and foolishly 
bedrifted hither and thither, to what corner of nature can 
he now drift with advantage? 
Carlyle, French Rev., III. iii. 3. 
Hither and yon, here and there ; near and far. [Prov. 
Eng. and U. S.) 
hither (hiTH'er), a. [< hither, adv.'} On the side 
or in the direction of the person speaking ; near: 
correlative of further: as, on the Waterside of 
a hill. 
The Prince then proceeded to send his army across the 
river. . . . The rear guard . . . were alone left upon the 
hither bank, in order to provoke or to tempt the enemy. 
Motley, Dutch Republic, II. 257. 
This light overhung the far-rolling landscape, . . . and 
nearer still it touched to spring-like brilliancy a level, 
green meadow on the hither edge of the water. 
The Century, XXXV. 945. 
hither (hten'er), v. i. To come hither. [Rare.] 
To hither and thither, to go back and forth ; travel 
about. 
An old black trunk a companion to our hithering and 
thithering for seven long years. 
The New Mirror (New York), III. 96. 
Fraser applied to me to write a word about him [Edward 
Irving], which I did ; and, after much hithering and thi- 
thering, I ascertain to-day that it is at last to be printed. 
Carlyle, in Froude. 
hithermoret, a. compar. [< hither + -more.] 
Nearer in this direction. 
The . . . part of the Citty that stood on the hithermore 
Banke. Holland, tr. of Camden's Britain, p. 472. 
hithermost (hiTH'er-most), a. superl. [< hither 
+ -most.] Nearest in this direction. 
Ambassadors were sent to the cities of the hythermost 
part of Spain vnto Acquitaine. 
Golding, tr. of Ciesar, fol. 80. 
The hithermost, in the changeable blue and green robe, 
is the commendably-fashioned gallant, Eucosmos. 
B. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, v. 3. 
hitherto (hiTH-er-to'), adv. [< ME. hiderto, < 
hider, hither, + to, to.] 1. To this place; thus 
far. [Archaic.] 
Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further. 
Job xxxviii. 11. 
2. To this time ; until now. 
Oure lorde foryeteth not his Synner; and he hath 
[shewed] me yet hidyr-to that he hath me not foryeten. 
Merlin (E. E. T. S.), iii. 678. 
Hitherto they have flourish't, now I hope they will strike. 
Milton, On Def. of Humb. Remonst. 
A journey of seventy miles, to a family that had hitherto 
never been above ten from home, filled us with apprehen- 
sion. Goldsmith, Vicar, iii. 
It was a noble and gracious spectacle the meeting of 
those hitherto inveterate foes, the duke of Medina Sidonia 
and the marques of Cadiz. Irving, Granada, p. 57. 
[Rarely used adjectively : as, 
The hitherto experience of men. 
T. H. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, 197.) 
hitheruntot (hiTH-er-un'to), adv. [< hither + 
unto.] IJntil this time. 
Every hour he was to look for nothing but some cruel 
death ; which hitherunto had only been delayed by the cap- 
tain's vehement dealing for him. 
Sir P. Sidney, Arcadia, L 
hitherward, hitherwards (hiTH'er-ward, 
-wardz), adv. [< ME. hiderward, hidewardjhe- 
durward, hiderwardes, < AS. hiderweard, adv. 
and adj., hitherward, < hider, hither, + -weard, 
-ward.] 1. Toward this place ; this way. 
Herkenes now hedyrwarde, and herys this storye. 
MorU Arthure (E. E. T. S.), L 25. 
! turne thy rudder hitherward awhile ; 
Here may thy storme-bett vessell safely ryde. 
Spenser, F. Q., II. xii. 32. 
I thought I heard my father coming hitherward. 
B. Jonson, Case is Altered, t 2. 
