to strike someone or something with your hand, an object, or a weapon
Maya hit the baseball so hard it flew over the fence.
Please don’t hit your little brother; talk to him instead.
✦ Old English ‘hittan’, of Germanic origin, meaning to come upon or reach.
a forceful blow or impact
The boxer went down after a powerful hit to the jaw.
The car’s bumper was damaged in the hit.
to collide with something or someone, often by accident
The bus hit a tree after skidding on the ice.
Be careful—your bike tire almost hit that rock on the trail.
to reach a particular place, level, or moment
The temperature will hit 40 °C tomorrow.
They hit the city around midnight after a long drive.
to press or quickly touch a key, button, or switch
Just hit the save button before you close the file.
He hit ‘reply all’ by mistake and emailed the whole team.
a very successful song, film, book, etc., that many people like
Their latest single became a huge hit overnight.
The movie was the surprise hit of the summer.
to affect or harm someone or something suddenly and strongly
The storm hit the coastal town without warning.
Rising prices have hit local families hard.
in computing, a single visit to a web page or a match to a search query
Our website gets about ten thousand hits a day.
The search returned over a million hits.
informal: a small dose of a drug, especially one that is inhaled
He took a quick hit of his asthma inhaler.
She felt better after one hit of oxygen at the clinic.
informal: an arranged murder carried out for payment
The detective discovered there was a hit ordered on the witness.
The mob boss paid an assassin to do the hit.
