Fit sb.²

Forms: 1 fitt, 4–7 fitt(e, 5–6 fytt(e, 4, 6– fit. [OE. fitt, str., of uncertain gender; recorded only once; the sense ‘conflict’ seems probable from the context.

  The OTeut. type *fitjo-, -jâ is not found in any other lang. with any of the senses explained below. It is possible, however, that the word may be cognate or even identical with prec., and that the primitive sense may have been ‘juncture,’ meeting’; cf. the vbs. Icel. fitja to knit, early mod.Du. vitten ‘to accomodate, to fitt, to serve’ (Hexham); on this supposition FIT sb.², a., and v. would also be cognate.]

  † 1.  Conflict, struggle. Only in OE. rare^–1.

a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Gen., 2072 (Gr.).

  † 2.  A position of hardship, danger, or intense excitement; a painful, terrible, or exciting experience. Obs.

  In quot. 1550 there is an apparent re-development of the OE. sense.

c. 1325.  Song Yesterday, 93, in E. E. P. (1862), 135.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Reeve’s T., 264.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 5197.

a. 1440.  Sir Eglam., 253.

a 1500[?].  Chester Pl. (E.E.T.S.), 205.

1550.  Bale, Eng. Votaries, II. H vij b. The fyrst fytt of Anselme with kynge Wyllyam Rufus.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, I. 8. In this fearefull fit also of an eclipse, Nicias the Generall of the Athenians (as a man ignorant of the course thereof) feared to set saile with his fleet out of the haven, and so greatly endaungered and distressed the state of his countrie.

  † b.  In 16th c. occas.: A mortal crisis; a bodily state (whether painful or not) that betokens death.

1579.  Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 181. The patient, if Phisitions are to be credited, and common experience estemed, is y^e neerest death when he thinketh himself past his disease, and the lesse griefe he fe[e]leth y^e greater fits he endureth.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., II. vii. 66.

  3.  a. A paroxysm, or one of the recurrent attacks, of a periodic or constitutional ailment. In later use also with wider sense: A sudden and somewhat severe but transitory attack (of illness, or of some specified ailment).

a. 1547.  Surrey, Faithf. Louer declareth, Songs & S. (1585), 15 b. As sick men in their shaking fits procure them selues to sweat.

1601.  Shaks., Jul. C., I. ii. 120.

1667.  D. Allsopp, in 12th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 8. My Lord Roos was taken with a fit of the collicke, and was forced to run away before dynner.

1691.  Blair, in W. S. Perry, Hist. Coll. Amer. Col. Ch. (1860), I. 6. The Bishop of London should have been there but was that day taken again with a fit of the stone.

1725.  N. Robinson, Th. Physick, 146. In accounting for the Nature of the Fits of Intermittent Fevers, I shall endeavour to explain what I mean by those Efforts of Nature.

1771.  Smollett, Humph. Cl. (1815), 3. A ridiculous incident that happened yesterday to my niece Liddy, has disordered me in such a manner, that I expect to be laid up with another fit of the gout.

1806–7.  J. Beresford, Miseries Hum. Life (1826), IV. xvi. The rest being cut short by a violent fit of coughing, with which you are seized at the instant.

1855.  Bain, The Senses and the Intellect, II. ii. § 3 (1864), 123. A cut or a scald is different from a fit of rheumatism or gout.

  fig.  1567.  Drant, Horace’s Art Poetrie, etc., C j b.

  † b.  spec. A paroxysm of lunacy (formerly viewed as a periodic disease). Obs.

1588.  Shaks., Tit. A., IV. i. 17.

1697.  Dryden, Æneid, III. 563.

1722.  Wollaston, Relig. Nat., ix. 201. What cruel tyrants there are, and have been in the world, who (at least in their fits) divert themselves with the pangs and convulsions of their fellow-creatures.

  c.  A sudden seizure of any malady attended with loss of consciousness and power of motion, or with convulsions, as fainting, hysteria, apoplexy, paralysis, or epilepsy. In 18th c. often used spec. without defining word = ‘fainting-fit’ or ‘fit of the mother’ (i.e., of hysteria: see MOTHER); in recent use it suggests primarily the notion of an epileptic or convulsive fit.

1621.  Burton, Anat. Mel., III. iii. III. 689. A iealous woman that by this meanes had many fits of the Mother.

1650.  Bulwer, Anthropomet., 141. A certaine Monke at Patavia, who when he came to have a tooth (which was longer than the rest) cut, to cure the deformity it brought, fell straight way into a convulsion, and Epilepticall fits, and in the part of the Tooth cut off there appeared the footsteps of a Nerve.

1681.  Otway, Soldier’s Fort., I. i. He has such a Breath, one Kiss of him were enough to cure Fits of the Mother.

1702.  Steele, Funeral, I. (1734), 20. Fits are a mighty help in the Government of a good-natured Man.

1762.  Goldsm., Cit. W., xxi. § 15. ‘Observe the art of the poet,’ cries my companion. ‘When the queen can say no more, she falls into a fit. While thus her eyes are shut, while she is supported in the arms of Abigail, what horrors do we not fancy! We feel it in every nerve; take my word for it, that fits are the true aposiopesis of modern tragedy.’

1789.  W. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1790), 629. Convulsion fits often constitute the last scene of acute or chronic disorders.

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Loom & Lugger, I. v. 76. Mrs. Draper here took up an unfinished net, and said that it had dropped from the hands of the old woman half an hour before, when the fainting fit came on in which she died.

Mod.  ‘Has she fainted?’ ‘No, I fear it is a fit.’

  d.  Hence colloq. in various hyperbolical phrases, as to scream oneself into fits, to throw (a person) into fits. Also, To beat (a person, a thing) into fits: to defeat or excel thoroughly, ‘beat hollow’; to give (a person) fits: to inflict humiliating defeat on; in U.S. to rate or scold vigorously.

1839.  Hood, Tale Trumpet, xxix.

1848.  Thackeray, Bk. Snobs, xx. Scrubbing Miss Polly’s dumpy nose with mottled soap till the little wretch screams herself into fits.

1859.  Farrar, Julian Home, i. He beat you to fits in the Latin verse.

1860.  L. Harcourt, Diaries G. Rose, II. 104–5. If such a proposal had been communicated to Fox, it would have thrown him into fits; for see how he raved at the mere thought of subjection to Pitt in any way.

1861.  Dickens, Gt. Expect., I. iv. If you could only give him his head, he would read the clergyman into fits.

1872.  E. Eggleston, Hoosier School-m., xii. 66. I rather guess as how the old man Bosaw will give pertickeler fits to our folks to-day.

1885.  Runciman, Skippers and Shellbacks, Old Pirate, 87. We goes out and tackles a East Indiaman, no less, and he gives us fits.

  4.  In various uses originally transf. from 3.

  a.  A sudden and transitory state of activity or inaction, or of any specified kind of activity, feeling, inclination, or aptitude.

1586.  Warner, Alb. Eng., I. ii. 20.

1591.  Sylvester, Du Bartas, I. iii. 186.

1634.  Milton, Comus, 546.

1667.  Flavel, Saint Indeed (1754), 143. We have our hot and cold fits by turns; and what is the reason but our unskilfulness and carelessness in keeping the heart?

1697.  Bp. Patrick, Comm. Ex. xx. 8. Stand in it (as we speak) and stedfastly resolve, by saying it; not in a Fit, but constantly.

1744.  Berkeley, Siris, § 213. Certain persons have fits of seeing in the dark.

a. 1764.  Lloyd, A Tale, Poet. Wks., 1774, I. 73.

1807–8.  W. Irving, Salmagundi (1824), 316. This outrageous merriment of Will’s, as may be easily supposed, threw the whole family into a violent fit of wondering.

1853.  Miss Yonge, Cameos, I. ii. 11. He [William Longsword] had many fits of devotion.

1882.  Picton, Cromwell, ii. 25. Restoration biographies say that the boy had fits of application alternating with fits of idleness.

  b.  spec. in Optics. (see quot. 1704).

1704.  Newton, Opticks, II. III. (1721), 256. The returns of the disposition of any Ray to be reflected I will call its Fits of easy Reflexion, and those of its disposition to be transmitted its Fits of easy Transmission, and the space it passes between every return and the next return, the Interval of its Fits.

1803.  Edin. Rev., I. Jan., 455. To shew how the law of the fits discovered by induction, might be fancifully resolved into a still more general law without any induction.

1831.  Brewster, Optics, xv. § 83. 126. In virtue of which they possess at different points of their path fits or dispositions to be reflected or transmitted by transparent bodies.

  c.  Often in phr. By fits (and starts): by irregular impulses or periods of action, at varying intervals, fitfully, spasmodically. Also more rarely, † at, † upon, fits, by fits and girds (obs. exc. dial.), † spasms, or † turns; † by halves and fits.

1583.  Golding, Calvin on Deut. vii. 39. He doth not thinges by fittes as Creatures doe but he continueth alwayes in one will.

1615.  G. Sandys, Trav., 72. A lazy people [the Turks] that worke but by fits; and more esteeme of their ease, then their profit: yet are they excessive covetous.

a. 1617.  Hieron, Wks., II. 489. Vpon fits you shall haue them talke like Angels, and yet as Christ said of Iudas, are Deuils indeede.

1620.  Sanderson, Serm. ad Pop., i. (1681), 145. If thou hast these things only by fits and starts, and sudden moods.

1635.  Swan, Spec. M. (1670), 363. Ælian saith that the Swallow is a watchfull bird, and sleepeth but by halves and fits (as we say) which is no sound kind of rest.

1650.  Fuller, A Pisgah-sight of Palestine, I. ii. 5. That froward people worshipped him by fits and girds, starting aside like a broken bow.

1664.  Power, Experimental Philosophy, I. 25. The equality of its [The Ant’s] Motion, that it trips so nimbly away without any saliency or leaping, without any fits or starts in its Progression.

1678.  Cudworth, Intell. Syst., I. iv. § 17, 303. To suppose that Orpheus had by Fits and Turns, been of different Humours and Perswasions.

1782.  Mad. D’Arblay, Let., 10 March. Let me murmur as I will by fits, I would not, if I could, change your destination.

1785.  T. Jefferson, Corr., Wks. 1859, I. 426. No particular State, acting by fits and starts, can harass the trade of France, Holland, &c.

1791.  Burke, Th. French Affairs, Wks. VII. 49. The non-payment produces discontent and occasional sedition; but is only by fits and spasms, and amongst the country people who are of no consequence.

1805.  Southey, Modoc in W., x.

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., xxiii.

1862.  Mrs. H. Wood, Mrs. Hallib., I. xiv. 163. Jane was hopeful, more hopeful by fits and starts than continuously so; but she did really believe that he might get well when the winter had passed.

1884.  Chesh. Gloss., s.v., ‘The clock strikes by fits and gurds,’

  d.  † The time during which a ‘fit’ lasts, a ‘spell,’ short period (obs.). Also, a spell of weather of a specified kind (obs. exc. dial.).

1583.  Fulke, Defence, iii. 205. After you have railed a fit, with ‘fie for shame!’

1615.  Dyke, Myst. Self-Deceiving, 116. His obedience is like the true Christians disobedience, which is not setled and rooted, but onely for a fitte.

a. 1625.  Fletcher, Hum. Lieutenant, IV. iv. Leo. I will not leave ye for a fit.

a. 1628.  J. Preston, New Covt. (1634), 213. He may for a fit, put out his hand to wickedness.

1685.  Temple, Ess. Garden., Wks. 1731, I. 188. Attended by some Fit of Hot and Dry Weather.

1685.  Dryden, Horace, Ode, III. xxix. iv.

1721.  Swift, Corr., Wks. 1841, II. 556. A fit of good weather would tempt me a week longer; for I never saw or heard of so long a continuance of bad, which has hindered me from several rambles I intended.

1868.  Atkinson, Cleveland Gloss., s.v., ‘A strange dry fit we ’ve had for seear.’

  e.  A capricious impulse, humour, mood.

a. 1680.  Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 174.

1786.  Burns, To J. S., iv.

1787.  Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, 6 March. I assured him I was seized with a silent fit, and he might spare himself further trouble.

1869.  Mrs. Stowe, Oldtown Folks, iv. 30. He had a blacksmith’s shop, where, when the fit was on him, he would shoe a horse better than any man in the county.

  f.  A violent access or outburst of laughter, tears, rage, etc.

1654.  R. Whitlock, Ζωοτομια, 47. The Doctresse would have a shaking fit of Laughter at you presently, though as many of your Books do say so, as shee hath Glasses or Gally Pots.

1676.  Hobbes, Iliad (1677), 377.

1678.  Wanley, Wond. Lit. World, V. ii. § 12. 469/2. Zeno, as mishapen in body as untoward in manners, a Tyrant and great drinker: in one of his drunken fits he was buried alive by his Empress Ariadne.

1778.  Mad. D’Arblay, Diary, 26 Aug. I men Mrs. Thrale, who, asking me if I would have some water, took me into a back room, and burst into a hearty fit of laughter.

1816.  Shelley, Alastor, 169.

1874.  W. B. Carpenter, Ment. Phys., I. vii. (1879), 325. Many irascible persons find great relief in a hearty explosion of oaths, others in a violent slamming of the door, and others (whose excitement is more moderate but less transient) in a prolonged fit of grumbling.

1886.  J. K. Jerome, Idle Thoughts, 64. He would go off into fits of merriment over every word you uttered.

  5.  Comb., as † fit-meal adv., by fits and starts (cf. PIECE-MEAL); fit-weed (see quot.).

1593.  Nashe, Christ’s Teares, 34 a. Amongst the Indians, there is a certaine people, that when any of their Kins-folkes are sicke, saue charges of phisicke, and rather resolue (vnnaturally) to eate them vppe, then day-diuersifying Agues, or blood-boyling surfets, should fit-meale feede on them.

1756.  P. Browne, Jamaica, 185. The stinking Eryngo, or Fittweed…. All the parts of this plant are reckoned very powerful antihisterics, and much used by the negroes and poorer whites, on all occasions of that nature.