Entry Word: bit

Function: noun

Meaning: 1 a very small piece <she left only a bit of the broccoli on her plate, so she was allowed to have dessert>

Synonyms atom, crumb, fleck, flyspeck, grain, granule, molecule, morsel, mote, nubbin, particle, patch, scrap, scruple, snippet, speck, tittle

Related Words ace, dab, glimmer, hint, hoot, iota, jot, lick, little, mite, modicum, ounce, peanuts, pinch, ray, shade, shred, smidgen (also smidgeon or smidgin), spot, strain, streak, suspicion, taste, touch, trace, whisper, whit; dash, driblet, drop; fragment, part, portion, section; bite, mouthful, nibble; handful, scattering, smattering, sprinkling; dose, shot; damn, darn; chip, flake, shard, shiver, sliver, splinter; clipping, paring, shaving; smithereens

Near Antonyms chunk, gob, lump, hunk, slab; abundance, barrel, bucket, bushel, deal, heaps, loads, mass, mountain, much, peck, pile, plenty, pot, profusion, quantity, raft, scads, stack, volume, wad, wealth

2 a broken or irregular part of something that often remains incomplete <bits of cookie scattered on the table> — see fragment
3 a very small amount <I'll have only a bit of food right now> — see particle 1
4 an indefinite but usually short period of time <this will only take a bit> — see while 1