1870. Figaro, 10 June. To make a great hit is, after all, more a matter of chance than merit.
1889. Pall Mall Gaz., 3 July. Madam Melba makes an especial hit in the valse from Roméo et Juliette.
1889. Referee, 6 Jan. Quite a hit has been made by the clever juvenile, La Petite Bertoto.
Adj. (Old Bailey).—Convicted.
Hard-hit, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Sore beset; hard-up (q.v.). Also deep in love (or grief, or anger).
1890. Licensed Vict. Gaz., 7 Nov. It was pretty generally known that he had been hard hit during the season.
Verb (American).—To arrive at; to light upon.
1888. Detroit Free Press, Oct. Professor Rose, who hit this town last spring, is around calling us a fugitive from justice.
To hit it, verb. phr. (colloquial).—To attain an object; to light on a device; to guess a secret.
1594. Shakspeare, Love’s Labour’s Lost, iv., 1. Thou cans’t not hit it, hit it, hit it, Thou can’st not hit it, my good man.