Bite — Defs

01 v. t. To seize with the teeth, so that they enter or nip the thing seized; to lacerate, crush, or wound with the teeth; as, to bite an apple; to …

imp. Bit; p. p. Bitten; p. pr. & vb. n. Biting

1.
To seize with the teeth, so that they enter or nip the thing seized; to lacerate, crush, or wound with the teeth; as, to bite an apple; to bite a crust; the dog bit a man.
“Such smiling rogues as these, Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwain.” — Shak.
2.
To puncture, abrade, or sting with an organ (of some insects) used in taking food.
3.
To cause sharp pain, or smarting, to; to hurt or injure, in a literal or a figurative sense; as, pepper bites the mouth.
4.
To cheat; to trick; to take in.[Colloq.]
5.
To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to; as, the anchor bites the ground.
“The last screw of the rack having been turned so often that its purchase crumbled, . . . it turned and turned with nothing to bite.” — Dickens.

Phrases & compounds

To bite the dust — to fall in the agonies of death; as, he made his enemy bite the dust.

To bite in — to corrode or eat into metallic plates by means of an acid.

To bite the thumb at — formerly a mark of contempt, designed to provoke a quarrel; to defy.

To bite the tongue — to keep silence.

02 v. i. To seize something forcibly with the teeth; to wound with the teeth; to have the habit of so doing; as, does the dog bite?

1.
To seize something forcibly with the teeth; to wound with the teeth; to have the habit of so doing; as, does the dog bite?
2.
To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which causes such a sensation; to be pungent; as, it bites like pepper or mustard.
3.
To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing.
“At the last it [wine] biteth like serpent, and stingeth like an adder.” — Prov. xxiii. 32.
4.
To take a bait into the mouth, as a fish does; hence, to take a tempting offer.
5.
To take or keep a firm hold; as, the anchor bites.

03 n. The act of seizing with the teeth or mouth; the act of wounding or separating with the teeth or mouth; a seizure with the teeth or mouth, a…

1.
The act of seizing with the teeth or mouth; the act of wounding or separating with the teeth or mouth; a seizure with the teeth or mouth, as of a bait; as, to give anything a hard bite.
“I have known a very good fisher angle diligently four or six hours for a river carp, and not have a bite.” — Walton.
2.
The act of puncturing or abrading with an organ for taking food, as is done by some insects.
3.
The wound made by biting; as, the pain of a dog's or snake's bite; the bite of a mosquito.
4.
A morsel; as much as is taken at once by biting.
5.
The hold which the short end of a lever has upon the thing to be lifted, or the hold which one part of a machine has upon another.
6.
A cheat; a trick; a fraud.[Colloq.]
“The baser methods of getting money by fraud and bite, by deceiving and overreaching.” — Humorist.
7.
A sharper; one who cheats.[Slang]
8.
A blank on the edge or corner of a page, owing to a portion of the frisket, or something else, intervening between the type and paper.(Print.)