Bite | Webster's Dictionary (1865)

Bite, v. t.

verbtransitive

[imp. & p. p. BIT, BITTEN; p. pr. & vb. n. BITING.] [A-S. bitan, Goth. beitan, Icel. & Sw. bita, Dan. bide, D. bijten, O. H. Ger. bizan, N. H. Ger. beiszen.]

Sense 1. To cut, crush, or seize with the teeth.

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

Sense 2. To cause sharp pain, or smarting to; to hurt or injure, in a literal or a figurative sense; as, pepper bites the mouth. “Frosts bite the meads.” Shak.

Sense 3. To cheat; to trick. [Colloq.] “The rogue was bit.” Pope.

Sense 4. 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, and it turned and turned with nothing to bite, Monseigneur began to run away from a phenomenon so low and unaccountable. Dickens.

To bite in (Etching), to corrode or eat into metallic plates by means of an acid.—To bite the dust, or the ground, to fall in the agonies of death; as, he made his enemy bite the dust.—To bite the thumb at a person, formerly a mark of contempt, designed to provoke a quarrel. “Do you bite your thumb at us?” Shak.

Bite, v. i.

verbintransitive

To seize or wound with the teeth or mouth.
To cause hurt, pain, or injury of any sort. “Biting falchion.” Shak.

One praises; one instructs; another bites. Roscommon.

Bite, n.

noun

Sense 1. The act of seizing with the teeth or mouth; as, the bite of a dog. “I have known a very good fisher angle diligently four or six hours for a river carp, and not have a bite.” Walton.

Sense 2. The wound made by the teeth, or by something analogous; as, the bite of an asp, or of a mosquito.

Sense 3. A morsel; as much as is taken at once by biting; a mouthful.

Sense 4. The hold which the short end of a lever has upon the thing to be lifted. Wright.

Sense 5. A cheat; a trick; a fraud. [Low.] “The baser methods of getting money by fraud and bite, by deceiving and overreaching.” Humorist.

Sense 6. A sharper; one who cheats.

Sense 7. (Print.) That part of an impression which is imperfectly printed, in consequence of the frisket not being sufficiently cut away.