Bite v.

Pa. t. bit. Pa. pple. bitten; also bit. arch. Forms: Inf. 1–2 bítan, 2–4 biten, (4–6 byte, 6–7 bight), 4– bite. Pa. t. 1–4 bát, 3–5 bot, 4–5 boot, 4–6 (and 9 dial.) bote, (5 boght); 7– bit; pl. 1 biton, 2–4 biten; also sing. 4 bett, bited, 5 bete; Sc. 4 bayte, 6 bait, 6– bate. Pa. pple. 1–4 biten, 4 byten, bittin, (ybite, ibyten), 8–9 bit, 7– bitten. [Com. Teut.: OE. bítan, pa. t. bát, biton, pa. pple. biten = OS. bitan (MDu. bîten, Du. bijten), OFris. bîta, ON. bíta (Sw. bita, Da. bide), OHG. bîȥan (MHG. bîȥen, mod.G. beiszen). Goth. beitan, pa. t. bait, bitum, pple. bitans:—OTeut. *bîtan, cogn. w. Skr. bhid-, L. fid- (findere) ‘to cleave, split.’ Originally inflected like write; but since 16th c. the regular pa. t. bote, still used in Lancashire, etc., has been superseded in standard Eng. by the form bit, which (though it has the original vowel of the plural) is not a continuation of that form, but formed either after the pa. pple., or on the analogy of some other verbs of the same class.]

  I.  Said of the teeth.

  1.  trans. To cut into, pierce or nip (anything) with the teeth.

  To bite is the function of the front teeth (incisors and canines); the back teeth (molars) chew, crush or grind.

a. 1000.  Beowulf, 1488. He ʓefeng hraðe … slǽpendne rinc bát bán-locan.

a. 1400.  Cov. Myst. (1841), 29. Adam ffor thou that appyl boot Agens my byddyng.

c. 1420.  Anturs Arth., xliii. The burlokkest blonke ther euyr bote brede.

a. 1500.  in Retrosp. Rev. (1853), Nov., 104. The appulle that Adam bett.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 208 b. He that doth byte a thynge dothe not vtterly destroye it but mynysshe it.

1592.  Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 316. He stamps and bites the poor flies in his fume.

1733.  Swift, On Poetry, 90. Be mindful, when invention fails, To scratch your head and bite your nails.

  b.  with adverbial complement. To bite away or off: to remove or detach by biting. To bite through, asunder, in two, etc.: to divide by biting.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 2926. Here aldre heuedes he of bot.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Boeth., II. vi. 53. Þis free man boot of hys owen tunge, and cast it in þe visage of þilke woode tyraunte.

1460.  Capgrave, Chron. (1858), 178. His hed was byten fro the body.

1480.  Robt. Devyll, 155, in Hazl., E. P. P., I. 225. Hys teeth grewe so peryllousslye, That the norysshe nypples he bote a waye.

a. 1529.  Skelton, P. Sparowe, 302. The selfe same hounde … Myght byte asondre thy throte.

[1861.  E. Waugh, Birtle Carter’s T., 11. His wife bote her tung i’ two.]

1870.  Geo. Eliot, Armgart., ii. Truth has rough flavours if we bite it through.

  c.  with cognate object.

c. 1320.  Cast. Love, 1343. A gret bite he bot of helle.

  2.  intr. or absol. in same sense. Const. of, on, upon (obs.). To bite at: to make an attempt to bite, to snap with the teeth at.

c. 1175.  Lamb. Hom., 123. Ne nom he na alle … ah ane dale alswa me bit of ane epple.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 18732. He … Þat neuer o þat appel bate.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xx. (1495), 126. Sharpe teeth growen or the brode teeth . for it nedyth to byte rather than to grynde.

c. 1450.  Knt. de la Tour (1868), 148. She bote upon the appille.

1596.  Spenser, State Irel., 46. [They] byte at the dugge from which they sucked life.

1668.  Pepys, Diary, 11 Feb. [It] makes me mad to see them bite at the stone, and not at the hand that flings it.

  3.  trans. To wound or lacerate with the teeth.

a. 1000.  Riddles (Gr.), lxvi. 4. Æghwa … biteð mec on bær lic.

c. 1300.  K. Alis., 5435. Hy biten [pa. t.] bothe man and hors.

1340.  Ayenb., 66. Þe felle dog þet byt and beberkþ alle þo þet he may.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, XXIX. 12150. Scho bete hom bitturly with hir bare teth.

c. 1440.  Gesta Rom. (1879), 399. The grewhonde … grevously bote hym.

1557.  K. Arthur (Copland), III. v. The whyte brachet bote hym by the buttocke and pulled out a pece.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., II. ii. 10. Sometime like Apes, that moe and chatter at me, And after bite me.

1766.  Goldsm., Elegy Mad Dog. The dog … Went mad, and bit the man.

1845.  Ford, Handbk. Spain, i. 42. The last man is the one the dog bites.

  b.  with cognate object.

1607.  Topsell, Serpents, 613. The Spider … biteth into his head a mortal wound.

  c.  fig. (cf. wound, sting, prick.)

c. 1200.  Ormin, 15580. Hat lufe toward godess hus Me biteþþ i min herrte.

c. 1325.  Metr. Hom., 105. Penanz bites man ful sare.

1531.  Elyot, Gov., I. ix. (1557), 24. Hym a lytle chydyng sore byteth.

1649.  Fuller, Just Man’s Funeral, 18. An affrighted conscience … biting of them.

1675.  Hobbes, Odyss., VIII. 186. So much your words me bite.

  d.  absol. or intr.

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 440. Lettiþ [þe houndis] boþe to berke and to byte.

1530.  Palsgr., 456/1. A woman can defende her selfe no better than to scratche and byte.

1580.  North, Plutarch (1676), 829. A dead man biteth not.

1591.  Spenser, M. Hubberd, 424. Yet spite bites neare.

1647.  May, Hist. Parl., I. vii. 73. Would faine be at something were like the Masse, that will not bite; a muzzled Religion.

1720.  Watts, Div. & Mor. Songs, xvi. Let dogs delight to bark and bite.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., IV. 666. It was better to die biting and scratching to the last.

  4.  trans. To ‘sting’ as a serpent, or an insect that sucks blood.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 5955 (Gött.). Hungri flies … þat bath þai bat bath man and best.

1382.  Wyclif, Prov. xxiii. 32. It [wine] shal bite as a shadewe eddre [1535 Coverd. it byteth like a serpent. So 1611].

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 113/4. Saynt machaire kylde a flee that bote hym.

1535.  Coverdale, Numb. xxi. 6. Fyrie serpentes … which bote [Genev. and 1611 bit] the people.

1730.  Southall, Buggs, 19. This Sucking the Wound so given, is what we improperly call biting us.

1793.  T. Beddoes, Calculus, 185. He employed more than three thousand vipers, and caused to be bit more than four thousand animals.

1871.  B. Taylor, Faust, I. v. (1886), 64. We crack them [fleas] and we crush them, At once, whene’er they bite.

  † 5.  trans. To go on nipping (portions of food), to nibble; to eat. Obs.

c. 1205.  Lay., 15340. Ne moste he nauere biten mete.

c. 1250.  Bestiary, 262. Ne bit ȝe nowt ðe barlic beren abuten.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 23. As gentle shepheard … Markes which doe byte their hasty supper best.

  † b.  absol. or intr. Const. on, upon. Obs.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Pard. Prol., 36. Her at this alestake I wil both drynke and biten on a cake.

1535.  Coverdale, Micah iii. 5. When they haue eny thinge to byte vpon.

c. 1620.  Z. Boyd, Zion’s Flowers (1855), 49. He … Shall … neither have to bite, nor yet to sup.

1640.  Bp. Hall, Chr. Moder. (Ward), 28/2. Fain to bite upon beans to keep himself from sleeping.

  † c.  trans. Of liquid food: To taste, to drink.

a. 1225.  Ancr. R., 364.

a. 1300.  K. Horn, 1130. No beer nallich ibite Bote of coppe white.

a. 1300.  Havelok, 1731. No page so lite, That euere wolde ale bite.

  6.  intr. Of fish: To seize or snap at the bait of the angler.

1653.  Walton, Angler, 86. He thought that Trout bit not for hunger but wantonness. Ibid., 131. He will bite both at the Minnow, the Worm, and the Fly.

1711.  Addison, Spect., No. 108, ¶ 2. I intend to … see how the Perch bite in the Black River.

1878.  Jevons, Prim. Polit. Econ., 29. The angler … in the early morning … when the fish will bite.

  b.  fig. To take or be caught by any bait.

1752.  Carte, Hist. Eng., III. 247. The council bit eagerly at the proposal.

1786.  T. Jefferson, Corr. (1830), 51. Do not bite at the bait of pleasure till you know there is no hook beneath it.

  † 7.  To bite in: to repress (what one has to say); to restrain (one’s feelings, etc.). Obs.

1608.  Bp. Hall, Epist., I. v. How manly he could bite-in his secret want; and dissemble his over-late repentance. Ibid. (1650), Cases Consc., 380. Content to bite in their hidden grievances.

  II.  Said of other things.

  8.  trans. To cut into or penetrate as a sharp-edged weapon. Also fig.

a. 1000.  Riddles (Gr.), lxxxviii. 13. Blod ut ne com … þeah mec heard bite stið-ecʓ style.

c. 1374.  Chaucer, Anel. & Arc., 270. The swerde of sorowe byte My wooful harte.

a. 1450.  Syr. Eglam., 490. Ther was no knyfe that wolde hym byte.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 157. My Dagger muzzel’d, Least it should bite it’s master.

1700.  Dryden, Meleager & A., 86. No sounding ax presum’d those trees to bite.

1859.  Tennyson, Enid, 573. Who heaved his blade aloft, And crack’d the helmet thro’, and bit the bone.

  b.  absol. or intr.

a. 1000.  Beowulf, 5150. Sio ecʓ ʓewac bat unswiðor.

c. 1314.  Guy Warw., 123. He hem smot With his fauchon that wele bot.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Sqrs. T., 150. Þoruhe oute his armour it wil kerue and bite.

c. 1400.  Epiph. (Turnb., 1843), 743. Gret axes … full scharpe bytond.

1535.  Stewart, Cron. Scot., II. 35. The fedderit flanis … Outthrow thair birneis bait.

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., II. i. 136. I haue a Sword: and it shall bite vpon my necessitie.

1842.  Macaulay, Battle Lake Reg., viii. Camerium knows how deeply The sword of Aulus bites.

  † c.  Const. in, into, to, of, on, upon. Obs.

c. 1205.  Lay., 7513. Þet swerd in bat.

c. 1340.  Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 426. Þe bit of þe broun stel bot on þe grounde.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1776. The jelous strokes on here helmes byte.

c. 1430.  Syr Tryam., 1221. To hys herte hys spere can byte.

1596.  Spenser, F. Q., II. v. 7. There the steel stayd not, but inly bate Deepe in his flesh.

1634.  Malory’s Arthur (1816), II. 255. There would no sword bite on him, no more than upon a gad of steel.

  9.  trans. and intr. To cause a sharp smarting pain (to): as a sharp stroke, a blister, caustic, etc.

c. 1325.  E. E. Allit. P., C. 373. Heter hayrez þay hent þat asperly bited.

1377.  Langl., P. Pl., B. XX. 359. Fro lenten to lenten He lat hise plastres bite.

c. 1485.  Digby Myst. (1882), III. 735. Thys hard balys on þi bottokkys xall byte!

1594.  Lyly, Moth. Bomb., I. i. 73. These medecines bite hot on great mischiefes.

1637.  Rutherford, Lett., lxxxiv. I. 215. Our crosses would not bite upon us if we were heavenly-minded.

  b.  To make (the mouth, throat, etc.) smart.

1552.  Huloet, Bite as … ginger and peper the tonge.

1580.  Baret, Alv., B 731. This mater biteth me by the stomacke.

1803.  R. Dallas, Hist. Maroons, I. iv. 92. Offering a … man … his choice of wine or rum … he chose the latter, with this answer: ‘Oh! Sir, any thing that bites the throat.’

  † c.  intr. To have a ‘nip’; to taste of. Obs.

1713.  Lond. & Country Brewer, I. (1742), 47. It makes the Ale bite of the Yeast.

  10.  trans. and absol. To affect painfully or injuriously with intense cold. Cf. frost-bitten.

1552.  Huloet, Bite, as frost biteth the grasse.

1553.  Eden, Treat. New Ind. 19. Thei are nether bytten with colde in winter nor burnt with heate in somer.

1600.  Shaks., A. Y. L., II. vii. 186. Freize, freize, thou bitter skie that dost not bight so nigh as benefitts forgot.

1609.  Dekker, Guls Horn-bk., Wks. 1884–5, II. 219. Vnlesse that Freezeland Curre, cold winter, offer to bite thee.

1866.  Tennyson, Window. Frost is here And has bitten the heel of the going year.

  11.  trans. and intr. To corrode, or eat into, as a strong acid or other chemical agent; to act upon chemically as a mordant.

1623.  Favine, Theat. Hon., II. XIII. 236. An Antique inscription, but bitten and worne with age.

1677.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc. (1703), 242. Being washed three or four times, it Bites or Eats not, but dries quickly.

1684.  T. Burnet, Th. Earth, II. 44. And stony mountains, which no fire can bite upon.

1822.  Imison, Sc. & Art, II. 428. Those lines which are not intended to be bit any deeper must now be stopped up.

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 286. The sal-ammoniac … has the peculiar property of causing the aqua-fortis to bite more directly downwards.

1879.  Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 299/2. The workman immerses the articles … in this solution, until the acid no longer ‘bites’ the metal.

  b.  To bite in in Engraving: to eat out the lines of an etching on metal with an acid.

1821.  Craig, Lect. Drawing, vii. 401. The cracks … when bit in, form … the grain of the work.

1875.  Ure, Dict. Arts, II. 283. Dürer’s etching appears to have been bitten in, or corroded with the acid at once.

  c.  refl. (fig.)

1876.  Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., II. xxix. 238. A man whose slight relations with her had … bitten themselves into the most permanent layers of feeling.

  12.  trans. and intr. Used to express the proper or improper action of various tools, implements, and parts of mechanism, in gripping or taking hold, either by penetrating or by friction. a. Of a plow: To run too deeply into the ground. b. Of a file, saw, etc.: To make an impression upon (the substance). c. Of an anchor: To enter and take hold of the bottom. d. Of the wheels of a locomotive and other parts of machinery depending for their effectiveness upon friction: To ‘grip’ the rails or surface. e. Of a skate on the ice.

1523.  Fitzherb., Husb., § 4. A reste balke is where the plough byteth at the poynte of the culture and share, and cutteth not the ground cleane to the forowe.

1635.  Swan, Spec. M., vi. (1643), 291. Of such hardnesse that the file can scarcely bite it.

1762.  trans. Duhamel’s Husb., I. ix. (ed. 2), 49. If the share is apt to bite, or run too deep into the ground.

1769.  Falconer, Dict. Marine (1789), To bite, to hold fast in the ground; expressed of the anchor.

1849.  J. R. Jackson, Min. & Uses, xxvi. 308. So hard that a steel tool will hardly bite upon it.

1864.  Daily Tel., 23 Dec., 3/1. As the engines did not bite, owing to the ‘greasiness’ of the metals, the deceased was directed to go to the front of the engine and throw sand through a tube on the rails.

1883.  William Gibson, U.S.N., in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 192.

1884.  Sunday Mag., May, 307/1. The oil … prevented the driving-wheels from ‘biting.’

  f.  Typogr. (see quot.)

1824.  J. Johnson, Typogr., II. 521. He examines whether the frisket bites; that is, whether it keeps off the impression from any part of the pages.

1882.  Print. Times, 15 Feb., 36/1.

  13.  fig. (trans. and intr.) To take hold of (the mind, etc.), seize, impress, come home to. arch.

c. 1325.  E. E. Allit. P., A. 356. Þy prayer may his pyte byte.

1532.  Frith, Mirror (1829), 273. I will allege another text of the wise man, which shall … bite them better.

1535.  Joye, Apol. Tind., 18. This reason did so byght Tindal and stoke so fast upon him.

1642.  Rogers, Naaman, 198. That worship which bites not the spirit, is most specious to the eye.

1627.  trans. Bacon’s Life & Death (1651), 24. Those thoughts, which seeing they are severed from the affairs of the world, bite not.

1864.  Macm. Mag., Oct., 467. Speaking of Algebra, in comparison with … Geometry, he [Chalmers] said … he could not take to it, for he could not make it bite like the other.

  † 14.  trans. To speak sharply or injuriously against; to calumniate (cf. backbite); to carp at. intr. To find fault sharply or severely, speak bitterly, jibe.

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron., 335. Here now þe grete despite … Þat to þer bak, gan bite of Scotlond þe clergie.

1586.  T. B., La Primaud. Fr. Acad., To Rdr. Seeking out what to bite at, and to reprehend in other mens works.

1605.  Verstegan, Dec. Intell. (1628), Pref. Verses. If Enuie bite what thou hast here set foorth.

1683.  J. Barnard, Life Heylyn, 40. It does not become any Son of the Church … to bite and snarl at the Name of Protestant.

  15.  trans. (colloq.) To deceive, to overreach, ‘take in.’ Now only in passive. Cf. BITE sb. 9.

1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 12. He has bit you fairly enough.

1732.  Pope, Ep. Bathurst, 143. The judge shall job, the Bishop bite the town.

1798.  W. Hutton, Autobiog., 31. The workmen saw my ignorance, and bit me as they pleased.

a. 1847.  Mrs. Sherwood, Lady of Manor, V. xxxii. 330. Both parties had been in some degree bitten in the reciprocal attempt to deceive each other.

1852.  Thackeray, Esmond, III. iii. 340. Miss Beatrix was quite bit (as the phrase of that day was).

Mod. phrase.  ‘The biter bit.’

  16.  Phrases. † To bite upon the bridle: to champ the bit like a restless horse, to wait impatiently. To bite the dust, ground, sand, etc.: to fall in death, to die. To bite the lip, or (obs.) upon the lips: to press the lip between the teeth, in order to restrain the expression of anger or mirth. † To bite one’s tongue: to hold it between the teeth so as to repress speech (cf. ‘to hold one’s tongue’). † To bite the thumb at: ‘to threaten or defie by putting the thumbe naile into the mouth, and with a ierke (from the upper teeth) make it to knack,’ (Cotgr. s.v. Nique); to give the ‘fico,’ to insult. † To bite the teeth: to gnash or grind them. † To bite one’s ear or one by the ear, i.e., as a sign of fondness, to caress fondly.

1514.  Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm. (1847), 41. These courtiers … Smelling those dishes, they bite upon the *bridle.

1600.  Abp. Abbot, Exp. Jonah, 342. Bite upon the bridle, that … he may be wiser afterward.

1870.  Bryant, Iliad, I. II. 55. May his fellow warriors … Fall round him to the earth and bite the *dust.

a. 1771.  Gray, Poems, Ode, viii. Soon a King shall bite the *ground.

1813.  Byron, Giaour, xxii. The foremost Tartar bites the ground!

c. 1330.  R. Brunne, Chron., 155. Philip bote on his *lippe.

1362.  Langl., P. Pl., B. V. 84. His body was to-bolle for wratthe þat he bote his lippes.

1475.  Caxton, Jason (1477), 52. He frowned … and bote on his lippe.

1613.  Shaks., Hen. VIII., III. ii. 113. He bites his lip, and starts, Stops on a sodaine.

1820.  Keats, Isabella, xxii. And many times they bit their lips alone.

1718.  Pope, Iliad, V. 51. First Odius falls, and bites the bloody *sand.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., I. i. 58. No, sir, I do not bite my *Thumbe at you sir: but I bite my Thumbe sir. Ibid. (1593), 2 Hen. VI., I. i. 230. So Yorke must sit, and fret, and bite his *tongue.

1535.  Coverdale, Lament. ii. 16. Thine enemies … bytinge their *teth sayenge: let vs deuoure.

1592.  Shaks., Rom. & Jul., II. iv. 81. I will bite thee by the *eare for that iest.

1610.  B. Jonson, Alch., II. iii. Slave, I could bite thine Ear.

1611.  Cotgr., Mordre l’oreille à, as much as flatter ou caresser mignonnement, wherein the biting of th’ *eare is, with some, an vsuall Action.