BITE

bite

(noun) a portion removed from the whole; “the government’s weekly bite from my paycheck”

bite, chomp

(noun) the act of gripping or chewing off with the teeth and jaws

pungency, bite, sharpness, raciness

(noun) a strong odor or taste property; “the pungency of mustard”; “the sulfurous bite of garlic”; “the sharpness of strange spices”; “the raciness of the wine”

pungency, bite

(noun) wit having a sharp and caustic quality; “he commented with typical pungency”; “the bite of satire”

bite

(noun) (angling) an instance of a fish taking the bait; “after fishing for an hour he still had not had a bite”

bite, collation, snack

(noun) a light informal meal

morsel, bit, bite

(noun) a small amount of solid food; a mouthful; “all they had left was a bit of bread”

bite

(noun) a wound resulting from biting by an animal or a person

sting, bite, insect bite

(noun) a painful wound caused by the thrust of an insect’s stinger into skin

bite

(verb) penetrate or cut, as with a knife; “The fork bit into the surface”

sting, bite, prick

(verb) deliver a sting to; “A bee stung my arm yesterday”

bite, seize with teeth

(verb) to grip, cut off, or tear with or as if with the teeth or jaws; “Gunny invariably tried to bite her”

bite, sting, burn

(verb) cause a sharp or stinging pain or discomfort; “The sun burned his face”

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Verb

bite (third-person singular simple present bites, present participle biting, simple past bit, past participle (rare) bit or bitten)

(transitive) To cut into something by clamping the teeth.

(transitive) To hold something by clamping one's teeth.

(intransitive) To attack with the teeth.

(intransitive) To behave aggressively; to reject advances.

(intransitive) To take hold; to establish firm contact with.

(intransitive) To have significant effect, often negative.

(intransitive, of a fish) To bite a baited hook or other lure and thus be caught.

(intransitive, metaphor) To accept something offered, often secretly or deceptively, to cause some action by the acceptor.

(intransitive, transitive, of an insect) To sting.

(intransitive) To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which causes such a sensation; to be pungent.

(transitive, sometimes, figurative) To cause sharp pain or damage to; to hurt or injure.

(intransitive) To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing.

(intransitive) To take or keep a firm hold.

(transitive) To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to.

(intransitive, slang) To lack quality; to be worthy of derision; to suck.

(transitive, informal, vulgar) To perform oral sex on. Used in invective.

(intransitive, African-American Vernacular, slang) To plagiarize, to imitate.

(obsolete) To deceive or defraud; to take in.

Hyponyms

• bite down

Noun

bite (plural bites)

The act of biting.

The wound left behind after having been bitten.

The swelling of one's skin caused by an insect's mouthparts or sting.

A piece of food of a size that would be produced by biting; a mouthful.

(slang) Something unpleasant.

(slang) An act of plagiarism.

A small meal or snack.

(figuratively) aggression

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.

(colloquial, dated) A cheat; a trick; a fraud.

(colloquial, dated, slang) A sharper; one who cheats.

(printing) 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.

(slang) A cut, a proportion of profits; an amount of money.

Synonyms

• (act of biting)

• (wound left behind after having been bitten)

• (swelling caused by an insect's mouthparts or sting): sting

• (piece of food of a size that would be produced by biting): mouthful

• (slang: something unpleasant)

• (slang: act of plagiarism)

• (small meal or snack): snack

• (figuratively: aggression)

Anagrams

• EBIT, ebit, tebi-

Source: Wiktionary

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Bite, v. t. [imp. Bit; p. p. Bitten, Bit; p. pr. & vb. n. Biting.] Etym: [OE. biten, AS. bitan; akin to D. bijten, OS. bitan, OHG. bizan, G. beissen, Goth. beitan, Icel. bita, Sw. bita, Dan. bide, L. findere to cleave, Skr. bhid to cleave. sq. root87. 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. Etym: [OE. bite, bit, bitt, AS. bite bite, fr. bitan 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.)

Definition: 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.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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