1. [n]  a conspicuous success; "that song was his first hit and marked the beginning of his career"; "that new Broadway show is a real smasher"
2. [n]  the act of contacting one thing with another; "repeated hitting raised a large bruise"; "after three misses she finally got a hit"
3. [n]  a successful stroke in an athletic contest (especially in baseball); "he came all the way around on Williams' hit"
4. [n]  a murder carried out by an underworld syndicate; "it has all the earmarks of a Mafia hit"
5. [n]  a dose of a narcotic drug
6. [n]  (physics) an brief event in which two or more bodies come together; "the collision of the particles resulted in an exchange of energy and a change of direction"
7. [v]  gain points; "The home team scored many times"
8. [v]  make a strategic, offensive, assault against an enemy, opponent, or a target; "The Germans struck Poland on Sept. 1, 1939"; "We must strike the enemy's oil fields"; "in the fifth inning, the Giants struck, sending three runners home to win the game 5 to 2"
9. [v]  hit with a missile from a weapon
10. [v]  hit the target or goal, as intended
11. [v]  consume to excess; "hit the bottle"
12. [v]  affect or afflict suddenly, usually adversely; "We were hit by really bad weather"; "He was stricken with cancer when he was still a teenager"; "The earthquake struck at midnight"
13. [v]  produce by manipulating keys or strings of musical instruments, also metaphorically; "The pianist strikes a middle C"; "strike `z' on the keyboard"; "her comments struck a sour note"
14. [v]  hit against; come into sudden contact with; "The car hit a tree"; "He struck the table with his elbow"
15. [v]  deal a blow to, either with the hand or with an instrument; "He hit her hard in the face"
16. [v]  cause to move by striking; "hit a ball"
17. [v]  reach a point in time, or a certain state or level; "The thermometer hit 100 degrees"; "This car can reach a speed of 140 miles per hour"
18. [v]  reach a destination, either real or abstract; "We hit Detroit by noon"; "The water reached the doorstep"; "We barely made the plane"; "I have to hit the MAC machine before the weekend starts"
19. [v]  cause to experience suddenly; "Panic struck me"; "An interesting idea hit her"; "A thought came to me"; "The thought struck terror in our minds"; "They were struck with fear"
20. [v]  encounter by chance; "I stumbled across a long-lost cousin last night in a restaurant"
21. [v]  kill intentionally and with premeditation; "The mafia boss ordered his enemies murdered"

1. \Hit\, pron.
   It. [Obs.] --Chaucer.
   

2. \Hit\,
   3d pers. sing. pres. of {Hide}, contracted from hideth.
   [Obs.] --Chaucer.
   

3. \Hit\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Hit}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Hitting}.] [OE. hitten, hutten, of Scand. origin; cf. Dan.
   hitte to hit, find, Sw. & Icel. hitta.]
   1. To reach with a stroke or blow; to strike or touch,
      usually with force; especially, to reach or touch (an
      object aimed at).
            I think you have hit the mark.        --Shak.
   2. To reach or attain exactly; to meet according to the
      occasion; to perform successfully; to attain to; to accord
      with; to be conformable to; to suit.
            Birds learning tunes, and their endeavors to hit the
            notes right.                          --Locke.
            There you hit him; . . . that argument never fails
            with him.                             --Dryden.
            Whose saintly visage is too bright To hit the sense
            of human sight.                       --Milton.
            He scarcely hit my humor.             --Tennyson.
   3. To guess; to light upon or discover. ``Thou hast hit it.''
      --Shak.
   4. (Backgammon) To take up, or replace by a piece belonging
      to the opposing player; -- said of a single unprotected
      piece on a point.
   {To hit off}, to describe with quick characteristic strokes;
      as, to hit off a speaker. --Sir W. Temple.
   {To hit out}, to perform by good luck. [Obs.] --Spenser.
   

4. \Hit\, v. i.
   1. To meet or come in contact; to strike; to clash; --
      followed by against or on.
            If bodies be extension alone, how can they move and
            hit one against another?              --Locke.
            Corpuscles, meeting with or hitting on those bodies,
            become conjoined with them.           --Woodward.
   2. To meet or reach what was aimed at or desired; to succeed,
      -- often with implied chance, or luck.
            And oft it hits Where hope is coldest and despair
            most fits.                            --Shak.
            And millions miss for one that hits.  --Swift.
   {To hit on} or {upon}, to light upon; to come to by chance.
      ``None of them hit upon the art.'' --Addison.
   

5. \Hit\, n.
   1. A striking against; the collision of one body against
      another; the stroke that touches anything.
            So he the famed Cilician fencer praised, And, at
            each hit, with wonder seems amazed.   --Dryden.
   2. A stroke of success in an enterprise, as by a fortunate
      chance; as, he made a hit.
            What late he called a blessing, now was wit, And
            God's good providence, a lucky hit.   --Pope.
   3. A peculiarly apt expression or turn of thought; a phrase
      which hits the mark; as, a happy hit.
   4. A game won at backgammon after the adversary has removed
      some of his men. It counts less than a gammon.
   5. (Baseball) A striking of the ball; as, a safe hit; a foul
      hit; -- sometimes used specifically for a {base hit}.
   {Base hit}, {Safe hit}, {Sacrifice hit}. (Baseball) See under
      {Base}, {Safe}, etc.
   

1. cache hit.

2. A request to a web server from a web browser or other client (e.g. a robot).

The number of hits on a server may be important for determining advertising revenue.

In the course of loading a single web page, a browser may hit a web server many times e.g. to retrieve the page itself and each image on the page. In contrast, caching by browsers and web proxies reduces the number of hits on the server because some requests are satisfied from the cache.

3. To press and release a key on the keyboard. Some prefer the less aggressive "tap".