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Chew vs Bit - What's the difference?

chew | bit |

In informal terms the difference between chew and bit

is that chew is to think about something; to ponder; to chew over while bit is Specifically, a small amount of time.

As verbs the difference between chew and bit

is that chew is to crush with the teeth by repeated closing and opening of the jaws; done to food to soften it and break it down by the action of saliva before it is swallowed while bit is to put a bridle upon; to put the bit in the mouth of (a horse).

As nouns the difference between chew and bit

is that chew is a small sweet, such as a taffy, that is eaten by chewing while bit is (metal in horse's mouth) A piece of metal placed in a horse's mouth and connected to reins to direct the animal.

As an adverb bit is

to a small extent; in a small amount (usually with "a").

As an adjective bit is

bitten.

chew

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To crush with the teeth by repeated closing and opening of the jaws; done to food to soften it and break it down by the action of saliva before it is swallowed.
    • Make sure to chew thoroughly, and don't talk with your mouth full!
    The steak was tough to chew as it had been cooked too long.
  • To grind, tear, or otherwise degrade or demolish something with teeth or as with teeth.
    • He keep his feed in steel drums to prevent the mice from chewing holes in the feed-sacks.
    The harsh desert wind and sand had chewed the stump into ragged strips of wood.
  • (informal) To think about something; to ponder; to chew over.
    • The professor stood at the blackboard, chalk in hand, and chewed the question the student had asked.
  • * Alexander Pope
    • Old politicians chew wisdom past.
  • * Prior
    • He chews revenge, abjuring his offense.

    Synonyms

    * (crush food with teeth prior to swallowing) bite, chavel, chomp, crunch, masticate * (degrade or demolish as if with teeth) grind, pulverize, rip, shred, tear * (think about) contemplate, ruminate, mull, muse, ponder * See also

    Derived terms

    * chewing gum * chew out * chew over * chew the cud * chew the fat * chew the scenery * chew up * chewy

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A small sweet, such as a taffy, that is eaten by chewing.
    • Phillip purchased a bag of licorice chews at the drugstore.
  • (informal, uncountable) Chewing tobacco.
    • The school had banned chew and smokes from the school grounds, even for adults.
  • (countable, or, uncountable) A plug or wad of chewing tobacco; chaw or a chaw.
    • ''The ballplayers sat on the bench watching the rain, glumly working their chews .
    The first time he chewed tobacco, he swallowed his chew and got extremely sick.

    Derived terms

    * chew toy * penny chew

    bit

    English

    (wikipedia bit)

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) bita and bite - all from (etyl) .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • 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 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?’}}
  • (informal) Specifically , a small amount of time.
  • A portion of something.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=July-August, author= Catherine Clabby
    • , magazine=(American Scientist), title= Focus on Everything , passage=Not long ago, it was difficult to produce photographs of tiny creatures with every part in focus.
  • Somewhat; something, but not very great; also used like jot and whit to express the smallest degree.
    • Am I bored? Not a bit of it!
  • * T. Hook
    • My young companion was a bit of a poet.
  • (slang) A prison sentence, especially a short one.
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • *
  • (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.
    • (Knight)
  • The cutting iron of a plane.
    • (Knight)
    Synonyms
    * (coin) coin, piece * (small piece) morsel (of food), piece, scrap * (portion) portion, share, segment * (horse equipment) snaffle, pelham, kimberwicke
    Derived terms
    * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

    Adverb

    (-)
  • To a small extent; in a small amount (usually with "a").
    • That's a bit too sweet.

    Verb

    (bitt)
  • To put a bridle upon; to put the bit in the mouth of (a horse).

    • Etymology 2

    See bite

    Verb

    (head)
  • (bite)
    • Your dog bit me!
  • , bitten
    • I have been bit by your dog!

    Adjective

    (-)
  • (label) bitten.
  • (label) Having been bitten.
  • *
  • *
  • *

    • 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.htm
  • 1946] First used in print 1948 by (Claude Shannon). Compare (byte) and (nybble).

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (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.
    • status bits''' on IRC; permission '''bits in a file system
  • (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}}
    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) b
    Derived terms
    * bit-depth * bitwise * hidden bit * high-order bit * least significant bit * most significant bit * * * * *
    See also
    * ban, nat, qubit

    Statistics

    *

    Anagrams

    * English irregular simple past forms 1000 English basic words ----