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brit

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Brit¹

  • /bɹɪt/

Rhymes with -ɪt

Where it comes from

First use appears c. 1901, either a shortening of Britisher or Briton, or a back-formation from British.

noun Brits

  1. informal A British person.
  2. A Brit Award, a prize for musicians in Britain.

adjective more Brit · most Brit

  1. abbreviation Abbreviation of British

proper noun

  1. abbreviation Abbreviation of Britain If Brit joins Common Market . . .; terms for Brit's entry agreed upon, U S will face new econ, political, defense problems when Brit joins EEC; […]
  2. abbreviation Abbreviation of British English
  3. A short river in Dorset, England, which flows through Bridport to the sea at West Bay; in full, the River Brit.

brit²

  • /bɹɪt/

Rhymes with -ɪt

Where it comes from

From Middle English brytten, brutten, from Old English brittian, bryttian (“to divide, dispense, distribute, rule over, possess, enjoy the use of”), from Proto-Germanic *brutjaną (“to break, divide”), from Proto-Germanic *breutaną (“to destroy, crush, break”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰrewd- (“to break”). Cognate with Icelandic brytja (“to chop up, break in pieces, slaughter”), Swedish bryta (“to break, fracture, cut off”), Danish bryde (“to break”), and outside the Germanic family with Albanian brydh (“to make crumbly, friable, soft”). Related to Old English brytta (“dispenser, giver, author, governor, prince”), Old English brēotan (“to break in pieces, hew down, demolish, destroy, kill”).

verb brits · britting · britted · britt · brite

  1. transitive To break in pieces; divide.
  2. transitive To bruise; indent.
  3. intransitive To fall out or shatter (as overripe hops or grain).
  4. dialectal, intransitive To fade away; alter.

brit³

  • /bɹɪt/

Rhymes with -ɪt

Where it comes from

Probably from Middle English bret or birt, applied to a different kind of fish. See bret.

noun brit · britt

  1. One of the young of herrings, sprats, etc.
  2. One of the tiny crustaceans, of the genus Calanus, that are part of the diet of right whales. The edges of these bones are fringed with hairy fibres, through which the Right Whale strains the water, and in whose intricacies he retains the small fish, when openmouthed he goes through the seas of brit in feeding time.

brit⁴

  • /bɹɪt/

Rhymes with -ɪt

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Hebrew בְּרִית.

noun brits · bris

  1. brit milah
  2. A covenant, specifically that between God and the Jewish people. The second theocentric approach to observance stresses the partnership of God and man. The Torah and the mitzvot express the eternal brit or covenant made between God and the Jewish people.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: britisher, briton, britt, britain, londoner, british, english, lfb, fsr, shalom, milah, englishman, englishwoman, anglo, limey, pom

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MLA

"brit." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/brit. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

brit. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/brit

Chicago

"brit." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/brit.

BibTeX
@misc{brit_2026,
  title = {brit},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/brit},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}