[f. BITE v. + -ING1.]
1. The action of the vb. BITE in its various senses.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 33. A þer [in helle] is waning and graming … and feonda bitinga.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 37. Bytynge, morsura.
1534. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), E viii. It is like the bitynge of a madde dogge.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 48. The enuenomed bytinges of the Serpents.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, ii. (1880), 70. The fish begin to slacken in their biting.
b. fig.
1382. Wyclif, Isa., Prol. 224. Opene to the bitingus of manye men.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., V. xxvi. (1495), 136. By the sharpenes and bytynge therof ache bredyth in the synewe of felynge.
c. 1440. Hylton, Scala Perf. (W. de W., 1494), I. xxxiv. Bityng of conscience.
1627. J. Doughty, Serm. (1628), 17. Hence those bitings and censures against others.
† 2. The wound made by a bite; the part bitten.
1527. Andrew, Brunswyke’s Distyll. Waters, Cjy. Cloutes wet therin and layd upon the bytynge.
1607. Topsell, Serpents, 788. Spiders applyed and laid upon their own bitings … do heal and help those hurts.
1669. Worlidge, Syst. Agric. (1681), 192. The same it will effect on the bitings or stingings of Snakes … and on the bitings of mad Dogs.
3. Biting in (cf. BITE v. 11 b).
1821. Craig, Lect. Drawing, vii. 390. The corroding with the aquafortis is also called biting in.
1822. Imison, Sc. & Art, II. 428. The biting-in of the plate is the most uncertain part of the process.
