Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Bite?

\Bite\, v. t. [imp. {Bit}; p. p. {Bitten}, {Bit}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Biting}.] [OE. biten, AS. b[=i]tan; akin to D. bijten, OS. b[=i]tan, OHG. b[=i]zan, G. beissen, Goth. beitan, Icel. b[=i]ta, Sw. bita, Dan. bide, L. findere to cleave, Skr. bhid to cleave. [root]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\, 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\, n. [OE. bite, bit, bitt, AS. bite bite, fr. b[=i]tan 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.