bite

Etymology

From Middle English biten, from Old English bītan (“bite”), from Proto-West Germanic *bītan, from Proto-Germanic *bītaną (“bite”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“split”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian biete (“bite”), West Frisian bite (“bite”), Dutch bijten (“bite”), German Low German bieten (“bite”), German beißen, beissen (“bite”), Danish bide (“bite”), Swedish bita (“bite”), Norwegian Bokmål bite (“bite”), Norwegian Nynorsk bita (“bite”), Icelandic bíta (“bite”), Gothic 𐌱𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (beitan, “bite”), Latin findō (“split”), Ancient Greek φείδομαι (pheídomai), Sanskrit भिद् (bhid, “break”).

verb

1. (transitive) To cut into something by clamping the teeth.
   As soon as you bite that sandwich, you'll know how good it is.
2. (transitive) To hold something by clamping one's teeth.
3. (intransitive) To attack with the teeth.
   That dog is about to bite!
4. (intransitive) To behave aggressively; to reject advances.
   If you see me, come and say hello. I don't bite.
5. (intransitive) To take hold; to establish firm contact with.
   I needed snow chains to make the tires bite.
6. (intransitive) To have significant effect, often negative.
   For homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages, rising interest will really bite.
7. (intransitive, of a fish) To bite a baited hook or other lure and thus be caught.
   Are the fish biting today?
8. (intransitive, figurative) To accept something offered, often secretly or deceptively, to cause some action by the acceptor.
   I've planted the story. Do you think they'll bite?
9. (intransitive, transitive, of an insect) To sting.
   These mosquitoes are really biting today!
10. (intransitive) To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which causes such a sensation; to be pungent.
    It bites like pepper or mustard.
11. (transitive, sometimes figurative) To cause sharp pain or damage to; to hurt or injure.
    Pepper bites the mouth.
12. (intransitive) To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing.
13. (intransitive) To take or keep a firm hold.
    The anchor bites.
14. (transitive) To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to.
    The anchor bites the ground.
15. (intransitive, slang) To lack quality; to be worthy of derision; to suck.
    This music really bites.
16. (transitive, informal, vulgar) To perform oral sex on. Used in invective.
    You don't like that I sat on your car? Bite me.
17. (intransitive, African-American Vernacular, slang) To plagiarize, to imitate.
    He always be biting my moves.
18. (obsolete) To deceive or defraud; to take in.

noun

1. The act of biting.
   Now trust me when I tell you, young lady, teeth are something you want to take care of. They’re these rare white things that give us pleasure throughout our life. And give us bite. Our inheritance. Our means of survival. Our right to rule. Their enamel is the front line. And that line needs to be won every day. 2016, Mark Z. Danielewski, The Familiar, Volume 3: Honeysuckle & Pain, Pantheon Books, page 513
2. The wound left behind after having been bitten.
   That snake bite really hurts!
3. The swelling of one's skin caused by an insect's mouthparts or sting.
   After just one night in the jungle I was covered with mosquito bites.
4. A piece of food of a size that would be produced by biting; a mouthful.
   There were only a few bites left on the plate.
   Not a soul in Corlaix will dare give us bite, sup, or shelter; and we shall die starved in a ditch, all four of us—that much we are our own, but in all else we are Monseigneur’s; all else, I say, all—all. 1906, Hamilton Drummond, The Chain of Seven Lives, F. V. White & Co., Ltd., pages 182–183
5. (slang) Something unpleasant.
   That's really a bite!
6. (slang) An act of plagiarism.
   That song is a bite of my song!
7. A small meal or snack.
   a bite to eat... I'll have a quick bite to quiet my stomach until dinner...
   Would I take someone here for a first date? No. Would I go here for a cheap bite? Also no... July 21 2023, Billie Schwab Dunn, “I Tried Wetherspoons Food for the First Time-I Feared I'd Get Scurvy...”, in Daily Star
8. (figurative, uncountable) Aggression.
   Kathy Santen is full of bite as the bizarrely seduced Lady Anne, although her exaggerated diction is a bit too snappishly Shakespearean. 22 April 1996, Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times
   In Tarabai’s text this exposure is direct, unusually blunt, full of bite and ridicule, and highly polemical. 1998, Vidyut Bhagwat, “Pandita Ramabai’s Strī-Dharma Nīti and Tarabai Shinde’s Strī-Puruṣ Tulanā: The Inner Unity of the Texts”, in Anne Feldhaus, editor, Images of Women in Maharashtrian Society, State University of New York Press, page 211
   City scored the goals but periods of ball possession were shared - the difference being Villa lacked bite in the opposition final third. March 2, 2011, Saj Chowdhury, “Man City 3 - 0 Aston Villa”, in BBC
9. 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.
10. (colloquial, dated) A cheat; a trick; a fraud.
    The baser methods of getting money by fraud and bite, by deceiving and overreaching. 1725, Thomas Gordon, The Humorist
11. (colloquial, dated, slang) A sharper; one who cheats.
12. (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.
13. (slang) A cut, a proportion of profits; an amount of money.
14. (television) Ellipsis of sound bite.
    cold open: Starting a TV newscast with video or a bite from the lead story rather than starting with the anchor or the standard show open. 2015, Robert A. Papper, Broadcast News and Writing Stylebook