pit-a-pat
pit-a-pat interjection: representing a series of quick tapping sounds.
Interjection
- Representing a series of quick tapping sounds.
- Pit-a-pat, pit-a-pat, the bullets kept falling and stirring up little puffs of dust on the open ground in front of the zeriba.1900 May, Frederic Villiers, “Twenty Years on the War Path. […] VII.—“My Friend Corporal Tonbar.””, in The Canadian Magazine of Politics, Science, Art and Literature, volume XV, number 1, Toronto...
- “Pit-a-pat! Pit-a-pat!”—On go the thousands of feet; on to the movie and on to the dance; on to the office, the club and the bank.[1921], Aimee Semple McPherson, Divine Healing Sermons, [Los Angeles, Calif.], →OCLC, page thirteen
Verb
pit-a-pat (third-person singular simple present pit-a-pats, present participle pit-a-patting, simple past and past participle pit-a-patted)
Noun
pit-a-pat (plural pit-a-pats)
- A series of quick tapping sounds
Adverb
pit-a-pat (not comparable)
- With a quick tapping sound
- “Only a scraping of shoes on the mat? / “Anything like the sound of a rat / “Makes my heart go pit-a-pat!”1842–1845, Robert Browning, “[Dramatic Romances and Lyrics.] The Pied Piper of Hamelin; a Child’s Story. […].”, in Poems […], new edition, volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], published 1849...
Adjective
pit-a-pat
- Characterized by quick tapping sounds; palpitating.
- The chesnut ringlets were speedily twitched from the confining paper, her Sunday hat, gown, and neckerchief bustled on in a moment, and wondering what he would say, and how she should feel and behave on the trying occasion, she descended with a pit-a-pat heart, and a cheek covered with burning...1810, [anonymous] […], chapter XXVII, in Splendid Follies. A Novel, […]. Founded on Facts., volume III, London: […] J[ames] F[letcher] Hughes, […], →OCLC, page 109
- The pit-a-pat heart of a susceptible girl of sixteen, tells her that a gentleman is a tall fellow with a fine military cap on his head; […]1830 February 4, The Maryland Gazette, volume LXXXV, number 5, Annapolis, Md.
Forms of pit-a-pat
| Interjection | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | pit a pat |
| alternative form | pitapat |
| alternative form | pit-pat |
| alternative form | pitpat |
| alternative form | pitter-pat |
| alternative form | pitterpat |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | pit-a-pats |
| present participle | pit-a-patting |
| past participle | pit-a-patted |
| past | pit-a-patted |
| Noun | |
| plural | pit-a-pats |
Origin of pit-a-pat
Imitative.
Questions about pit-a-pat
- What does pit-a-pat mean?
- Pit-a-pat means representing a series of quick tapping sounds.
- What part of speech is pit-a-pat?
- Pit-a-pat can be an interjection, a verb, a noun or an adverb.
Words near pit-a-pat in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: pit-a-pat (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “pit-a-pat.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/pit-a-pat. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.