[bit] 
| 1. | a small piece or quantity of anything: a bit of string. |
| 2. | a short time: Wait a bit. |
| 3. | Informal. an amount equivalent to 12 1/2 U.S. cents (used only in even multiples): two bits; six bits. |
| 4. | an act, performance, or routine: She's doing the Camille bit, pretending to be near collapse. |
| 5. | a stereotypic or habitual set of behaviors, attitudes, or styles associated with an individual, role, situation, etc.: the whole Wall Street bit. |
| 6. | Also called bit part. a very small role, as in a play or motion picture, containing few or no lines. Compare walk-on (def. 1). |
| 7. | any small coin: a threepenny bit. |
| 8. | a Spanish or Mexican silver real worth 12 1/2 cents, formerly current in parts of the U.S. |
| 9. | a bit, rather or somewhat; a little: a bit sleepy. |
| 10. | a bit much, somewhat overdone or beyond tolerability. |
| 11. | bit by bit, by degrees; gradually: Having saved money bit by bit, they now had enough to buy the land. |
| 12. | do one's bit, to contribute one's share to an effort: They all did their bit during the war. |
| 13. | every bit, quite; just: every bit as good. |
| 14. | quite a bit, a fairly large amount: There's quite a bit of snow on the ground. |
The smallest unit of information. One bit corresponds to a “yes” or “no.” Some examples of a bit of information: whether a light is on or off, whether a switch (like a transistor) is on or off, whether a grain of magnetized iron points up or down.
Note: The information in a digital computer is stored in the form of bits.
bit
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quite a bit
Also, quite a few; quite a lot. A considerable or moderate amount, as in There's still quite a bit of snow on the ground, or Quite a few parking spaces are open. [Second half of 1800s]
