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Pit-a-pat is the light, quick sound of little steps, or of a heart that is beating fast. It is the same idea as . You can use it as a sound word (her heart went pit-a-pat), as a verb (her feet pit-a-patted down the hall), or as an adverb (he ran pit-a-pat across the floor). It is informal, a little storybook, and more at home in writing than in everyday speech. People also write it pitapat, as one word. It copies the sound; it is not built from pit the hole in the ground, and it is not a tap on the back.
啪嗒啪嗒；心跳怦怦跳
組成Imitative: the word is trying to sound like the thing it names, the way a drum might go boom.
同家族的字
- pitter-patterthe same sound-copying word; people use pit-a-pat and pitter-patter for the same light beat of feet or of a heart
原始詞典資料5 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，原文照列，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
pit-a-patintj
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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.
- “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.
pit-a-patverb
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To make a series of quick tapping sounds; to palpitate
pit-a-patnoun
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A series of quick tapping sounds
pit-a-patadv
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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!”
pit-a-patadj
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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.
- 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; […]
資料來源：英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary（CC BY-SA 4.0）。 原文照列，未經改寫。