English edit

 
Mooring bitts on board SS Shieldhall, a preserved steamship.

Etymology edit

Middle English, probably of Low German or North Germanic origin, and the English form a corruption or contraction, from Old Norse biti, probably ultimately from a variant of Proto-Germanic *bitiz. Compare Swedish beting and Danish beding.

Noun edit

bitts pl (plural only)

  1. (nautical, plural only) A frame composed of two strong oak timbers (bitt-heads) fixed vertically in the fore part of a ship, bolted to the deck beams to which are secured the cables when the ship rides to anchor

Derived terms edit

References edit

Luxembourgish edit

Verb edit

bitts

  1. second-person singular present indicative of bidden