usually in pl. bitts. Naut. Also 6 beetes, 7–9 bits. [Derivation uncertain: some form of the word is now found in most European languages, but its history is not clear in any: in Fr. bitte, Sp. bita, It. bitta; cf. med.L. bitus a whipping-post, ‘lignum quo vincti flagellantur’ Erfurt Gloss. In Sw. beting, Da. beding; LG. and Du. beting, Ger. bäting (perh. from Sw.) ‘bitts’; with which cf. OE. bǽting, béting ‘a cable, a rope, anything that holds or restrains.’ Cf. also ON. biti ‘a cross-beam in a house or ship, transtrum,’ according to Vigfusson, the same word as biti bit, mouthful = OE. bita, BIT sb.2
(Franck concludes that the word is of Teutonic origin, and from the root of bítan to bite.)]
One of the strong posts firmly fastened in pairs in the deck or decks of a ship, for fastening cables, belaying ropes, etc.; generally used in the plural. The chief pair, the riding bitts, are used for fastening the cable while the ship rides at anchor; others are the topsail-sheet bitts, carrick-bitts, wind-lass bitts, etc. Also attrib., as bitt-head, -pin.
1593. P. Nichols, Drake Revived, in Arb., Garner, V. 509. Two or three yonkers, which were found afore the beetes.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 398. A Cable as it was running out of the bits of the ship (as the Sea-men terme it).
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., ii. 10. The Bits are two great peeces of timber, and the Crospeece goeth thorow them.
1769. Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), Tour-et-choque, a weather-bit of the cable, or a turn and half-turn about the bits.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, ix. Jack stood … not far from the main bitts.
c. 1850. Rudim. Navig. (Weale), 97. Bitts … It consists of two upright pieces of oak, called Bitt-Pins, when the bitts are large, or of knees, when the bitts are small, with a cross-piece fastened horizontally near the head of them.
1869. Sir E. Reed, Shipbuild., xv. 276. To keep the bitt in its proper position.
