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. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Such smiling rogues as these,
Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwain. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To puncture, abrade, or sting with an organ (of some insects) used in taking food. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To cheat; to trick; to take in. [ Colloq. ] Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to; as, the anchor bites the ground. [ 1913 Webster ]

The last screw of the rack having been turned so often that its purchase crumbled, . . . it turned and turned with nothing to bite. Dickens. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

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? [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing. [ 1913 Webster ]

At the last it [ wine ] biteth like serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Prov. xxiii. 32. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To take a bait into the mouth, as a fish does; hence, to take a tempting offer. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To take or keep a firm hold; as, the anchor bites. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

I have known a very good fisher angle diligently four or six hours for a river carp, and not have a bite. Walton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. The act of puncturing or abrading with an organ for taking food, as is done by some insects. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The wound made by biting; as, the pain of a dog's or snake's bite; the bite of a mosquito. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A morsel; as much as is taken at once by biting. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. A cheat; a trick; a fraud. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The baser methods of getting money by fraud and bite, by deceiving and overreaching. Humorist. [ 1913 Webster ]

7. A sharper; one who cheats. [ Slang ] Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. One who, or that which, bites; that which bites often, or is inclined to bite, as a dog or fish. “Great barkers are no biters.” Camden. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who cheats; a sharper. [ Colloq. ] Spectator. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Pref. bi- + ternate. ] (Bot.) Doubly ternate, as when a petiole has three ternate leaflets. -- Bi*ter"nate*ly, adv. Gray. [1913 Webster]