1762 Consolatory Epist. to Members Old Faction 40 Can any body forget our actually landing near Rochfort, and marching far enough up the country to take several bunches of grapes in the sight of a whole village? All this, I am sure, the most sanguine Pittites will not be hardy enough to deny.

1784 J. Hartley Hist. Westm. Election 527 The Pittite drew near with a simper and grin; Galloping dreary dun, To resist such a ruler (he cried) is a sin!

1818 Cobbett's Weekly Polit. Reg. 33 462 They even surpassed the Pittites in the prodigality and scandalousness of their giants [etc.].

1834 T. B. Macaulay William Pitt in Misc. Writings (1860) II. 372 The haters of parliamentary reform called themselves Pittites.

1952 Amer. Hist. Rev. 57 365 Meanwhile this particular opportunity for an Anglo-American settlement has obviously passed, for early in that year the friendly British ministry had fallen; the stern and warlike Pittites had returned to power.

1997 Jrnl. Brit. Stud. 36 41 The Pittites sought to place the state above the fray of special interest brokering.

1770 J. Wedgwood Let. 20 Aug. in Sel. Lett. (1965) 94 Place the sprigs in the best manner possible round the rim, I fear they will have a formal and a Pittite look.

1798 Duchess of Devonshire Let. 29 Nov. in Francis Lett. (1901) II. 437 The extreme fretful dislike my Pittite friends express to the secession proves to me that they have reason to fear it.

1812 L. Hunt in Examiner 25 May 321/1 The remains of the Pittite Cabinet.

1899 G. Smith United Kingdom II. x. 418 The patronage generally was left to the Company, though by amicable understanding much of it went to the government, and, being administered by Dundas, helped largely to keep Scotland Pittite.

1940 Eng. Hist. Rev. 55 443 The direction, Atkinson assumed, would be predominantly Pittite because seventeen directors had already declared their intention of supporting Pitt rather than Fox.

1992 Notes & Queries Mar. 58/1 Dodington..argued..against the bellicose sentiments of the London-based Pittite press.

1807 J. Beresford Miseries Human Life II. xviii. xiii. 158 The additional tantalization of seeing the Pittites below you smoking away without fear or shame.

1812 Dramatic Censor 1811 8 The O.P. dance was attempted to be performed, but the Pitites had not yet mustered in sufficient force to carry their desire into effect.

1849 W. M. Thackeray in Scribner's Mag. (1887) June 681/1 A kind of stupid intelligence that passes for..wit with the pittites.

1903 A. Bennett Truth about Author xiii. 162 Many time I have stood with you. But never again, miserable pittites!

1939 J. Joyce Finnegans Wake iii. 427 The graced of gods and pittites.

1961 W. P. Bowman & R. H. Ball Theatre Lang. 260 Pittite, in British terminology, a spectator in the pit.