English

Noun

doit ‎(plural doits)

1. (historical) A small Dutch coin, equivalent to one-eighth of a stiver.
   • c. 1606, Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, Act 4, Scene 12:

     most monster-like, be shown / For poor'st diminutives, for doits;

2. (archaic) A small amount; a bit, a jot.
   • 1819, — Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

     “Speak out, ye Saxon dogs — what bid ye for your worthless lives? — How say you, you of Rotherwood?” “Not a doit I,” answered poor Wamba.

   • 1610, The Tempest, by Shakespeare, act 2 scene 2

     When / they will not give a doit to relieve a lame beggar, they / will lay out ten to see a dead Indian.

3. (music) In jazz music, a note that slides to an indefinite pitch chromatically upwards.
   • 1995, Music & Computers (volume 1, issues 2-4, page 57)

     Jazz symbols include many contoured articulations and inflections, such as doits, fall-offs, and scoops.

Etymology 2

From Scots doit, apparently a Scottish form of English dote.

Verb

doit ‎(third-person singular simple present doits, present participle doiting, simple past and past participle doited)

1. (Scotland, rare) To stumble; to blunder.
   • 1824, James Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner:

     I trembled with astonishment; and on my return from the small window went doiting in amongst the weaver's looms, tillI entangled myself, and could not get out again without working great deray amongst the coarse linen threads that stood in warp from one end of the apartment unto the other.

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dwa/
• Homophones: doigt, doigts, dois

Verb

doit

1. Must, has to third-person singular present indicative of devoir

   Il doit aller en France un jour

   He must go to France one day

Old French

Alternative forms

• dei
• deit
• doi

Etymology

From Latin digitus.

Noun

doit m ‎(oblique plural doiz or doitz, nominative singular doiz or doitz, nominative plural doit)

1. finger (appendage)

Descendants

• Middle French: doigt
  • French: doigt
• Norman: dé (Jersey), deigt (Guernsey)
• Walloon: doet

Welsh

Alternative forms

• delet (colloquial)
• deuit (literary)
• deuet (literary)
• doet (colloquial)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /dɔi̯t/

Verb

doit

1. (literary) second-person singular imperfect / conditional of dod

Mutation