doit
See also: do it
English
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /dɔɪt/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
- Rhymes: -ɔɪt
Etymology 1
Borrowed from Middle Low German doyt, cognate with Middle Dutch duit. Doublet of thwaite.
Noun
doit (plural doits)
- (historical) A small Dutch coin, equivalent to one-eighth of a stiver.
- 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard:
- '"You got a lot of gold off Mr. Beauclerc," says Glascock.
'"Not a doit more than I wanted," says he, laughing again. "And who, pray, had a better right—did not I murder him?"
- 1869, Alfred Russel Wallace, The Malay Archipelago, volume II, London: Macmillan and Co., page 45:
- Soon after I arrived here the Dutch Government introduced a new copper coinage of cents instead of doits (the 100th instead of the 120th part of a guilder), and all the old coins were ordered to be sent to Ternate to be changed. I sent a bag containing 6,000 doits, and duly received the new money by return of the boat.
- (archaic) A small amount; a bit, a jot.
- 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii], page 9:
- […] when they will not giue a doit to relieue a lame Begger, they will lay out ten to ſee a dead Indian: […]
- 1819 December 20 (indicated as 1820), Walter Scott, Ivanhoe; a Romance. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co. […], →OCLC:
- “Speak out, ye Saxon dogs — what bid ye for your worthless lives? — How say you, you of Rotherwood?” “Not a doit I,” answered poor Wamba.
- 1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados:
- "As a matter of fact," explained the young man, "the present tenant is under our notice to leave."
"Unsatisfactory, eh?" said Carrados encouragingly.
"He's a corker," admitted the clerk, responding to the friendly tone. "Fifteen months and not a doit of rent have we had. That's why I should have liked——"
- (music) In jazz music, a note that slides to an indefinite pitch chromatically upwards.
- 1995, Music & Computers, volume 1, numbers 2-4, page 57:
- Jazz symbols include many contoured articulations and inflections, such as doits, fall-offs, and scoops.
Derived terms
Translations
Etymology 2
Borrowed from Scots doit, apparently a Scots cognate of dote.
Verb
doit (third-person singular simple present doits, present participle doiting, simple past and past participle doited)
- (Scotland, rare) To stumble; to blunder.
- 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner:
- I trembled with astonishment; and on my return from the small window went doiting in amongst the weaver's looms, tillI entangled myself, and could not get out again without working great deray amongst the coarse linen threads that stood in warp from one end of the apartment unto the other.
Further reading
Anagrams
French
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /dwa/
Audio (France (Lyon)): (file) Audio (Canada (Shawinigan)): (file) Audio (France (Brétigny-sur-Orge)): (file) Audio (France (Vosges)): (file) - Homophones: doigt, doigts, dois (general), doua, douas, douât (one pronunciation)
Verb
doit
- third-person singular present indicative of devoir: must, has to
- Il doit aller en France un jour.
- He must go to France one day.
Old French
Alternative forms
Etymology
Noun
doit oblique singular, m (oblique plural doiz or doitz, nominative singular doiz or doitz, nominative plural doit)
- finger (appendage)
Descendants
Welsh
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /dɔi̯t/
Verb
doit
- (literary) second-person singular imperfect/conditional of dod