[Imitative. Cf. TU-WHIT.] A word expressing a shrill abrupt sound, as of a bird’s chirp, a bullet striking something hard, etc.; also as vb. (Also repeated.)
1833. M. Scott, Tom Cringle, viii. The musket-balls were … plumping into the timber whit-whit.
1854. R. S. Surtees, Handley Cr., v. ‘Whit’ cries the coachman to his horses, off they go.
1859. Tennyson, Grandmother, x. And whit, whit, whit, in the bush beside me chirrupt the nightingale.
1888. Kipling, Ball. Boh Da Thone, 134. Where the whit of the bullet, the wounded man’s scream Are mixed.
1900. C. Waterson, in Longman’s Mag., Jan., 230. The murmur of voices and the whit-whit of the scraping knives die away.
1902. [M. H. Grant], Words by an Eyewitness, 97. A storm of bullets from front and right whit viciously upon the woodwork.
