What is the difference between bit and tack?
bit | tack |
A piece of metal placed in a horse's mouth and connected to reins to direct the animal.
A rotary cutting tool fitted to a drill, used to bore holes.
(dated, British) A coin of a specified value. (Also used for a nine-pence coin in the British Caribbean)
(US) An eighth of a dollar. Note that there is no coin minted worth 12.5 cents. (When this term first came into use, the Spanish 8 reales coin was widely used as a dollar equivalent, and thus the 1 real coin was equivalent to 12.5 cents.)
(historical, US) In the southern and southwestern states, a small silver coin (such as the real) formerly current; commonly, one worth about 12½ cents; also, the sum of 12½ cents.
A small amount of something.
* {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=15 (informal) Specifically , a small amount of time.
A portion of something.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author=
, magazine=(American Scientist), title= Somewhat; something, but not very great; also used like jot and whit to express the smallest degree.
* T. Hook
(slang) A prison sentence, especially a short one.
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*
*
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(An excerpt of material) An excerpt of material making up part of a show, comedy routine, etc.
The part of a key which enters the lock and acts upon the bolt and tumblers.
The cutting iron of a plane.
To a small extent; in a small amount (usually with "a").
To put a bridle upon; to put the bit in the mouth of (a horse).
(bite)
, bitten
(label) bitten.
(label) Having been bitten.
*
*
*
1946] First used in print 1948 by (Claude Shannon). Compare (byte) and (nybble).
(mathematics, computing) A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.
(computing) The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.
(information theory, cryptography) Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values.
(information theory) A unit of measure for information entropy.
* {{quote-web, date = 2011-05-17
, author = Lisa Grossman
, title = Entropy Is Universal Rule of Language
, site = Wired Science
, url = http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/05/universal-entropy/
, accessdate = 2012-09-26}}
A small nail with a flat head.
* 2012 , July 15. Richard Williams in Guardian Unlimited,
A thumbtack.
(sewing) A loose seam used to temporarily fasten pieces of cloth.
(nautical) The lower corner on the leading edge of a sail relative to the direction of the wind.
(nautical) A course or heading that enables a sailing vessel to head upwind. See also reach, gybe.
A direction or course of action, especially a new one.
* 1994 , Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom , Abacus 2010, p. 637:
(nautical) The maneuver by which a sailing vessel turns its bow through the wind so that the wind changes from one side to the other.
(nautical) The distance a sailing vessel runs between these maneuvers when working to windward; a board.
(nautical) A rope used to hold in place the foremost lower corners of the courses when the vessel is close-hauled; also, a rope employed to pull the lower corner of a studding sail to the boom.
Any of the various equipment and accessories worn by horses in the course of their use as domesticated animals. Saddles, stirrups, bridles, halters, reins, bits, harnesses, martingales, and breastplates are all forms of horse tack .
(manufacturing, construction, chemistry) The stickiness of a compound, related to its cohesive and adhesive properties.
Hardtack.
* 1913 , D. H. Lawrence, "Sons and Lovers":
That which is attached; a supplement; an appendix.
* Bishop Burnet
(legal, Scotland) A contract by which the use of a thing is set, or let, for hire; a lease.
(obsolete) Confidence; reliance.
To nail with a tack (small nail with a flat head).
To sew/stich with a tack (loose seam used to temporarily fasten pieces of cloth).
(nautical) To maneuver a sailing vessel so that its bow turns through the wind, i.e. the wind changes from one side of the vessel to the other.
To add something as an extra item.
Often paired with "up", to place the tack on a horse.
As nouns the difference between bit and tack
is that bit is a piece of metal placed in a horse's mouth and connected to reins to direct the animal or bit can be (mathematics|computing) a binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0 while tack is a small nail with a flat head.As verbs the difference between bit and tack
is that bit is to put a bridle upon; to put the bit in the mouth of (a horse) or bit can be (bite) while tack is to nail with a tack (small nail with a flat head).As a adverb bit
is to a small extent; in a small amount (usually with "a").As a adjective bit
is (colloquial) bitten.bit
English
(wikipedia bit)Etymology 1
From (etyl) bita and bite - all from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)citation, passage=‘No,’ said Luke, grinning at her. ‘You're not dull enough! […] What about the kid's clothes? I don't suppose they were anything to write home about, but didn't you keep anything? A bootee or a bit of embroidery or anything at all?’}}
Catherine Clabby
Focus on Everything, passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.
- Am I bored? Not a bit of it!
- My young companion was a bit of a poet.
- (Knight)
- (Knight)
Synonyms
* (coin) coin, piece * (small piece) morsel (of food), piece, scrap * (portion) portion, share, segment * (horse equipment) snaffle, pelham, kimberwickeDerived terms
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Adverb
(-)- That's a bit too sweet.
Verb
(bitt)Etymology 2
See biteVerb
(head)- Your dog bit me!
- I have been bit by your dog!
Adjective
(-)Etymology 3
Coined by (John Tukey) in 1946 as an abbreviation of (binary digit), probably influenced by connotations of “small portion”.[http://www.princeton.edu/pr/news/98/q2/0602-honorary.html][http://www.thocp.net/timeline/1944.htmNoun
(en noun)- status bits''' on IRC; permission '''bits in a file system
- The researchers found that the original texts spanned a variety of entropy values in different languages, reflecting differences in grammar and structure.
But strangely, the difference in entropy between the original, ordered text and the randomly scrambled text was constant across languages. This difference is a way to measure the amount of information encoded in word order, Montemurro says. The amount of information lost when they scrambled the text was about 3.5 bits per word.
Synonyms
* (smallest unit of storage) bDerived terms
* bit-depth * bitwise * hidden bit * high-order bit * least significant bit * most significant bit * * * * *See also
* ban, nat, qubitStatistics
*tack
English
Etymology 1
From , probably from a (etyl) source.Noun
(en noun)Tour de France 2012: Carpet tacks cannot force Bradley Wiggins off track
- A tough test for even the strongest climber, it was new to the Tour de France this year, but its debut will be remembered for the wrong reasons after one of those spectators scattered carpet tacks on the road and induced around 30 punctures among the group of riders including Bradley Wiggins, the Tour's overall leader, and his chief rivals.
- I thought that my refusing Barnard would alienate Botha, and decided that such a tack was too risky.
- The laminate adhesive has very aggressive tack and is hard to move once in place.
- "But if a woman's got nothing but her fair fame to feed on, why, it's thin tack , and a donkey would die of it!"
- Some tacks had been made to money bills in King Charles's time.
- (Macaulay)
- (Burrill)
- (Halliwell)
Synonyms
* (nautical maneuver) coming aboutHyponyms
* (nail-like object for affixing thin things) thumbtackDerived terms
* Blu-Tack * hardtack * thumbtackVerb
(en verb)- to tack (something) onto (something)