bits

A piece of metal placed in a horse's mouth and connected to the reins to direct the animal.

“A horse hates having a bit put in its mouth.”

A rotary cutting tool fitted to a drill, used to bore holes.

A coin of a specified value.

“a threepenny bit”

A ten-cent piece, dime.

A unit of currency or coin in the Americas worth a fraction of a Spanish dollar; now specifically, an eighth of a US dollar.

“A quarter is two bits.”

In the southern and southwestern states, a small silver coin (such as the real) formerly current; commonly, one worth about 12½ cents; also, the sum of 12½ cents.

A small amount of something.

“There were bits of paper all over the floor.   Does your leg still hurt? / Just a bit now.   I've done my bit; I expect you to do yours.”

Specifically, a small amount of time.

“I'll be there in a bit; I need to take care of something first.   He was here just a bit ago, but it looks like he's stepped out.”

(plural) Fractions of a second.

“The 400 metres race was won in 47 seconds and bits.”

A portion of something.

“I'd like a big bit of cake, please.”

Somewhat; something, but not very great; also used like jot and whit to express the smallest degree. See also a bit.

“Am I bored? Not a bit of it!”

A prison sentence, especially a short one.

An excerpt of material making up part of a show, comedy routine, etc.

“His bit about video games was not nearly as entertaining as the other segments of his show.”

A small part or role, sometimes with spoken lines, in a theatrical performance.

“She acted her bit in the opening scene.”

The part of a key which enters the lock and acts upon the bolt and tumblers.

The cutting iron of a plane.

The bevelled front edge of an axehead along which the cutting edge runs.

A binary digit, generally represented as a 1 or 0.

The smallest unit of storage in a digital computer, consisting of a binary digit.

Any datum that may take on one of exactly two values.

“permission bits in a file system”

A unit of measure for information entropy.

A microbitcoin, or a millionth of a bitcoin (0.000001 BTC).