A mitt is a thick, padded glove that covers your hand and fingers, designed for a specific purpose. The most famous type is a baseball mitt, which has deep padding and a pocket to catch hard-thrown balls without hurting your hand. Catchers wear an extra-thick catcher's mitt to protect their hand from fastballs, while first basemen use a longer, wider mitt to scoop up throws from other players.

The word also describes an oven mitt, that quilted glove you use to pull hot dishes from the oven without burning yourself. Some people call regular winter mittens mitts, though traditional mittens keep your four fingers together in one compartment, while a baseball mitt has individual finger sections hidden inside the padding.

The key idea behind any mitt is protection: it shields your hand from something intense, whether that's a 90-mile-per-hour fastball or a 400-degree baking sheet. When someone says “nice catch” after you snag a fly ball in your mitt, they're praising both your skill and the tool that made it possible.