Pit-a-pat
adj, adv, intj, noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A series of quick tapping sounds
- 1 To make a series of quick tapping sounds; to palpitate
- 1 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 blushes."
- 1 With a quick tapping sound not-comparable
"“Only a scraping of shoes on the mat? / “Anything like the sound of a rat / “Makes my heart go pit-a-pat!”"
- 1 describing a rhythmic beating wordnet
- 2 as of footsteps wordnet
- 1 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."
Example
More examples"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."
Etymology
Imitative.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.