Bite (bīt), v. t. [imp. Bit (b&ibreve_;t); p. p. Bitten (b&ibreve_;tt'n), 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.]
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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.
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Such smiling rogues as these,
Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwain. Shak.
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2. To puncture, abrade, or sting with an organ (of some insects) used in taking food.
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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.
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4. To cheat; to trick; to take in. [Colloq.] Pope.
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5. To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to; as, the anchor bites the ground.
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The last screw of the rack having been turned so often that its purchase crumbled, . . . it turned and turned with nothing to bite. Dickens.
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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.
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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.
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I have known a very good fisher angle diligently four or six hours for a river carp, and not have a bite. Walton.
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2. The act of puncturing or abrading with an organ for taking food, as is done by some insects.
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3. The wound made by biting; as, the pain of a dog's or snake's bite; the bite of a mosquito.
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4. A morsel; as much as is taken at once by biting.
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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.
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6. A cheat; a trick; a fraud. [Colloq.]
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The baser methods of getting money by fraud and bite, by deceiving and overreaching. Humorist.
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7. A sharper; one who cheats. [Slang] Johnson.
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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.
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