(slang) A prison sentence, especially a short one.
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Had it not been for the influence of Mrs. Booth and Hope Hall I should still be grafting or doing a bit in some stir
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1904, The Anamosa prison press, volume 7, Iowa. Colony of Detention at Anamosa:
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Before doing that I am going to tell you what was the result of my own incarceration, because I presume it may not be a secret to you, that I have done a "bit" myself, not the "bit" which the prosecuting attorney was so anxious to have me do.
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1916, Thomas Mott Osborne. Warden, Sing Sing Prison, N. Y., “Prison Reform”, in The Journal of sociologic medicine, volume 17, page 407:
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Chino didn't make me think of Dachau or that notorious joint in Angola, Louisiana, where a brother who had done a bit there told me how they used to cut the grass on the front lawn with their fingernails.
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1994, Odie Hawkins, Lost Angeles, page 158:
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Not counting the days—that's okay for a county-time slap, but it'll make you crazy if you've got years to go on a felony bit.