Also 5 byte. [f. BITE v. Taking the place of BIT sb.1 and 1, in several of their original and more literal senses, first in 15th c. in sense 1, and at various later dates in the other senses. (As BIT was earlier spelt bite, with short ĭ, it is not possible always to distinguish the two words, at the period when bīte was coming in.)]
1. The act or action of cutting, piercing, or wounding, with the teeth; also fig.
1499. Promp. Parv. (Pynson), Byte, morsus.
1570. Levins, Manip., 150. A Byte, morsus, rictus.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 522. Their venom’d Bite [durique venenum Dentis].
1735. Pope, Prol. Sat., 106. Of all mad creatures … It is the slaver kills, and not the bite.
1799. Southey, King Crocod., II. King Crocodile … show’d his teeth, but he miss’d his bite.
Mod. Provb. His bark is worse than his bite.
b. The keen cutting effect of a harsh wind.
1881. Daily Tel., 28 Jan., 1/3. There was a thin scattering of sleet in the air which gave a peculiar edge to the bite of the wind.
c. The action of a machine indenting metal, etc.
1876. E. Clark, Japan, 192. Stamping machines … closed upon each of them [blank coins] with a ‘bite.’
d. The corrosive action of acid upon the metal plate in etching.
1875. Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 286. If … the engraver finds that the acid has acted as he wishes, he has secured what is technically termed ‘a good bite.’
e. A downward jerk of a horse’s head.
1861. Whyte-Melville, Market Harb., xii. (ed. 12), 98. ‘Hold up, you brute,’ he added, as Hotspur made an egregious ‘bite,’ that nearly landed him on his nose.
2. The biting of food or victuals; concr. food to eat; chiefly in the phrase bite and sup.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 34. One peny … That euer might either make me bite or sup.
1816. Scott, Old Mort., vi. There’s puir distressed whigs enow about the country will be glad to do that for a bite and a soup.
1861. Miss Braddon, Trail Serp., VI. vi. 301. He had lain concealed for fourteen days without either bite or sup.
b. The biting of grass; herbage to bite.
1765. Tucker, Lt. Nat., I. 618. Little seeds, each whereof cannot throw up herbage enough to make a bite for a sheep.
1799. J. Robertson, Agric. Perth, 302. It … gives sheep a good bite early in the season.
1834. Brit. Husb., I. viii. 216. They are then again turned out as soon as there is a bite of grass in the spring.
1881. Daily News, 4 June, 5/5. Grass lands were terribly backward; there was little bite for cattle.
3. Angling. The seizure of the bait by a fish.
1653. Walton, Angler, 169. I have knowne a very good Fisher angle … for three or four dayes together for a River Carp, and not have a bite.
1836. Marryat, Midsh. Easy, vi. I have another bite … ah! he’s off again.
1863. Burton, Bk. Hunter, 102. The chance of these excites him, like the angler’s bites and rises, and gives its zest to the pursuit.
4. A piece bitten off (usually to eat); a mouthful.
1535. Stewart, Cron. Scot., III. 476. To mak him remeid, Or him support with ane byte of gra breid.
1784. Mrs. A. Adams, Lett. (1848), 203. Although he longs for a morsel, he has not yet agreed for a single bite.
a. 1817. Ballad ‘Susan Pye,’ xx. ibid., 472/2. Tell him to send one bite of bread.
1827. Scott, Two Drovers, Take it all, man—take it all—never make two bites of a cherry.
† 5. Thieves’ slang. Cash, money. Obs. Cf. BIT sb.2 8 a.
1532. Dice Play (1850), 30. So proud … because he hath gotten a new chain … and some store of byte.
1592. Greene, Def. Conny-catch., Wks. 1881–3, XI. 44. Some … would venter all the byte in their boung at dice.
6. A wound made with the teeth.
1736. Bailey, Bite, an hurt made by the teeth.
1766. Goldsm., Elegy Mad Dog. The man recovered of the bite, The dog it was that died.
1830. Tennyson, Dream Fair Wom., 160. Thereto [her breast] she pointed with a laugh, Showing the aspick’s bite.
1838. Penny Cycl., XII. 400/1. The bite of a rabid animal generally heals up like that of a healthy one.
7. The grip or hold of an edge surface in various mechanical contrivances. Also fig.
1865. Masson, Rec. Brit. Philos., iii. 176. His system … may have lost its bite upon the British mind.
Mod. In wet weather sand is sprinkled under the wheels of a locomotive to increase their bite upon the rails.
8. Typogr. A blank left in printing through the accidental covering of a portion of the ‘forme’ by the frisket.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc., in Savage, Dict. Print., s.v. Bite, If the frisket is not sufficiently cut away, but covers some part of the form, so that it prints on the frisket, it is called a bite.
1882. W. Blades, Caxton, 130. In ‘Speculum Vitæ Christi’ we actually find ‘a bite,’ half of the bottom line remaining unprinted.
† 9. slang. An imposition, a deception; what is now called a ‘sell’; passing from the notion of playful imposition or hoax, to that of swindle or fraud. Obs. (Cf. BITER, 2.)
1711. Steele, Spect., No. 156, ¶ 2. It was a common Bite with him, to lay Suspicions that he was favoured by a Lady’s Enemy.
1726. Amherst, Terræ Filius, ix. 43. Sharpers would not frequent gaming-tables, if the men of fortune knew the bite.
1755. M. Masters, Lett. & Poems, 260. What the witlings term’d Bite in the Spectator’s time is now call’d Humbug.
1815. Scott, Guy M., iii. What were then called bites and bams, since denominated hoaxes and quizzes.
1860. Sat. Rev., 14 April, 475/2. That form of practical joking which in the time of ‘The Spectator,’ was known as a bite … in the popular slang of the day, is designated ‘a sell.’
b. A sharper, a swindler: see also quot. 1846.
1742. Fielding, Miss Lucy (1762), 176. Is this wench an idiot, or a bite? marry me, with a pox!
a. 1787. S. Jenyns, in Dodsley, III. 169. The fool would fain be thought a bite.
1846. Brackenridge, Mod. Chiv., 21. The jockeys suspected that the horse was what they call a bite, that under the appearance of leanness and stiffness, was concealed some hidden quality of swiftness.
10. slang. A nickname for a Yorkshireman. (Origin disputed: see Daily News, 11 Sept. 1883; Yorksh. Post, 9 Jan. 1884.)
1883. Daily News, 4 Sept., 5/6. The great and puissant race known indifferently as ‘tykes’ or ‘bites.’
11. Comb. bite-beast (nonce-wd.), a beast that bites; bite-free a., free from, or not liable to, bites; Biteless a., that does not bite, unbiting.
1730. Southall, Buggs, 30. They will no longer think themselves bite-free.
1850. Blackie, Æschylus, I. 163. A torpedo, that with biteless touch Strikes numb who handles.
1877. Browning, Agamem. Calling her the hateful bite-beast.
1883. Burroughs, in Century Mag., XXVII. 780/1. Chilled them speechless and biteless.
