(Homonym: bitt).
1. A small fragment of something broken off from the whole; SYN. chip, flake, fleck, scrap.
2. Piece of metal held in horse's mouth by reins and used to control the horse while riding.
3. The cutting part of a drill; usually pointed and threaded and is replaceable in a brace or bitstock or drill press.

A unit of measurement of information (from Binary+digIT); the amount of information in a system having two equiprobable states
In computers, a single character, especially a single binary numeral (0 or 1): abbreviation of binary digit.
Short for binary digit. The smallest unit of information handled by a computer. One bit expresses a 1 or a 0 in a binary numeral, or a true or false logical condition, and is represented physically by an element such as a high or low voltage at one point in a circuit or a small spot on a disk magnetized one way or the other. A single bit conveys little information a human would consider meaningful. A group of 8 bits, however, makes up a byte, which can be used to represent many types of information, such as a letter of the alphabet, a decimal digit, or other character. See also ascii, binary1, byte.
(contraction of binary digit) In computing, a single binary digit, either 0 or 1. A bit is the smallest unit of data stored in a computer; all other data must be coded into a pattern of individual bits. A byte represents sufficient computer memory to store a single character of data, and usually contains eight bits. For example, in the ascii code system used by most microcomputers the capital letter A would be stored in a single byte of memory as the bit pattern 01000001.
The maximum number of bits that a computer can normally process at once is called a word. Microcomputers are often described according to how many bits of information they can handle at once. For instance, the first microprocessor, the Intel 4004 (launched 1971), was a 4-bit device. In the 1970s several different 8-bit computers, many based on the Zilog Z80 or Rockwell 6502 processors, came into common use. During the early 1980s, the ibm personal computer was introduced, using the intel 8088 processor, which combined a 16-bit processor with an 8-bit data bus. Business micros of the later 1980s began to use 32-bit processors such as the Intel 80386 and Motorola 68030. Machines based on the first 64-bit microprocessor, the Intel Pentium, appeared 1993.
Acronym for binary digit. The smallest unit of computer information, it is either a binary 0 or 1.

(Homonym: bitt).
(Informal) Injured by bites or stings; SYN. bitten, stung.

(Horses) To put a bridle upon; to put the bit in the mouth of.