Bite (?), v. i. 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.
Bite (?), v. t. [imp.
Bit (?); p. p. Bitten (?), Bit;
p. pr. & vb. n. Biting.] [OE. biten, AS.
bītan; akin to D. bijten, OS. bītan, OHG.
bīzan, G. beissen, Goth. beitan, Icel.
bīta, Sw. bita, Dan. bide, L. findere to
cleave, Skr. bhid to cleave. √87. Cf. Fissure.]
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. "Frosts do bite the meads." Shak.
4. To cheat; to trick; to take in. [Colloq.]
Pope.
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.
To bite the dust, To bite the
ground, to fall in the agonies of death; as, he made his
enemy bite the dust. -- To bite in
(Etching), to corrode or eat into metallic plates by means of an
acid. -- To bite the thumb at (any one),
formerly a mark of contempt, designed to provoke a quarrel; to
defy. "Do you bite your thumb at us?" Shak. --
To bite the tongue, to keep silence.
Shak.
Bite, n. [OE. bite, bit,
bitt, AS. bite bite, fr. bītan to bite, akin to
Icel. bit, OS. biti, G. biss. See Bite,
v., and cf. Bit.] 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]
Johnson.
8. (Print.) 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.