bite

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

• enPR: bīt, IPA^(key): /baɪt/
• (Canada, regional US) IPA^(key): /bʌɪt/

• Audio

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• Rhymes: -aɪt

• Audio (US)

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• Homophones: bight, by't, byte

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

1. (transitive) To cut off a piece 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, figuratively) 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 figuratively) To cause sharp pain or damage to; to hurt or injure.

    Pepper bites the mouth.

    • Shakespeare

      Frosts do bite the meads.

12. (intransitive) To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing.
    • Bible, Proverbs xxiii. 32

      At the last it [wine] biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

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.

    • Charles Dickens

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

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.

• bite down

• backbite
• biter
• biting

bite (plural bites)

1. The act of biting.
   • Walton

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

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.

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.

   I'll have a quick bite to quiet my stomach until dinner.

8. (figuratively) aggression
   • 2011 March 2, Saj Chowdhury, “Man City 3 - 0 Aston Villa”, in BBC‎:

     City scored the goals but periods of ball possession were shared - the difference being Villa lacked bite in the opposition final third.

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.
    • Humorist

      The baser methods of getting money by fraud and bite, by deceiving and overreaching.

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

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Johnson to this entry?)

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.

• (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):

• beetle
• bit

• EBIT, ebit, tebi-

• bitte

• IPA^(key): /bit/

• Audio

  (file)

bite f (plural bites)

1. (slang, vulgar) knob, cock, dick

   Il a souri quand j'ai mis la main entre ses cuisses et je me suis mise à frotter sa grosse bite.

   He smiled when I put my hand between his thighs and started to rub his big cock.

• teub

• “bite” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

From Proto-Baltic [Term?] (compare Lithuanian bitė), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰei-, *bʰī-. Cognate to English bee.

bite f (5th declension)

1. bee

bite

1. plural of bita

bite

1. (Hallig), (Mooring) to bite

From Old Norse bíta, from Proto-Germanic *bītaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”).

bite (present tense biter, past tense bet or beit, past participle bitt, present participle bitende)

1. to bite

• bite i gresset
• bitende (adjective)

• bitt (noun)

• “bite” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

• bita

From Old Norse bíta, from Proto-Germanic *bītaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”). Akin to English bite.

• IPA^(key): /²biːtɑ/

bite (present tense bit, past tense beit, past participle bite, present participle bitande, imperative bit)

1. to bite

• “bite” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

From Proto-Germanic *bitiz.

bite m

1. bite

• Middle English: bitte, bite (merged with bita)
  • Scots: bit
  • English: bit

• IPA^(key): /ˈbʲi.tɛ/

bite

1. inflection of bity:
   1. neuter nominative/accusative/vocative singular
   2. nonvirile nominative/accusative/vocative plural

bite

1. dative singular of bit

From Old Frisian bīta, from Proto-Germanic *bītaną.

bite

1. to bite

• “bite (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011