subs. (old Cant).—1.  See BIT.

1

  2.  (old).—The female pudendum: see BITER and MONOSYLLABLE (B. E.).

2

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BITE. The Cull wapt the Morts BITE, c. the Fellow enjoyed the Whore briskly.

3

  3.  (old).—Imposition; humbug; a sell; a do: cf. BILK, BAM, BARGAIN, and SELL. The sense runs through all stages, from jocular hoaxing to downright swindling. Also a disappointment, as in the old proverb ‘the biter bit.’ A man is bitten when he burns his fingers meddling in matters, which, though promising well, turn out failures.—See also CROSS-BITE.

4

  1711.  STEELE, Spectator, No. 156. 2. It was a common BITE with him, to lay Suspicions that he was favoured by a Lady’s Enemy.

5

  1721.  AMHURST, Terræ-filius, ix., 43. Sharpers would not frequent gaming-tables, if the men of fortune knew the BITE.

6

  1749.  SMOLLETT, Gil Blas (1812), I, ii. I was as much affected by this BITE as I have since been by misfortunes of far greater Consequence.

7

  1749.  SMOLLETT, Gil Blas (1812), VIII, vii. I don’t want a valet of such a religious deportment; I have been already BIT by such another.

8

  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 177. He boasted, but it prov’d a BITE.

9

  1817.  SCOTT, Rob Roy, ix. ‘It’s all a bam, ma’am—all a bamboozle and a BITE, that affair of his illness.’

10

  1846.  BRACKENRIDGE, Modern Chivalry, 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.

11

  1860.  The Saturday Review, 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.’

12

  1883.  Daily News, 18 April, p. 5, col. 4. Lord Randolph Churchill, we fear, has been making Mr. Gladstone the victim of what, in the slang of Addison’s time, would have been called a BITE, and what in the slang of our own time is called a ‘sell.’

13

  4.  (old).—A sharper; a cheat; a trickster: also BITER, BILK (B. E., c. 1696).

14

  1669.  The Nicker Nicked, in Harleian Miscellany (ed. PARK), ii., 108. [BITER is given in a list of names of cheats and thieves.]

15

  1680.  COTTON, The Compleat Gamester, in S. W. Singer, Researches into the History of Playing Cards (1816), p. 333. Hectors, setters, jilts, pads, BITERS, etc., and these may all pass under the general appellation of rooks.

16

  1709.  STEELE, Tatler, No. 12. A BITER, who is a dull fellow, that tells you a lye with a grave face, and laughs at you for knowing him no better than to believe him.

17

  1711.  Spectator, No. 47. These gentlemen are commonly distinguished by the name of BITERS: a race of men that are perpetually employed in laughing at those mistakes which are of their own production.

18

  1712.  Spectator, No. 504. A BITER is one who tells you a thing you have no reason to disbelieve in itself, and perhaps has given you, before he bit you, no reason to disbelieve it for his saying it; and if you give him credit, laughs in your face, and triumphs that he has deceived you.

19

  1742.  FIELDING, Miss Lucy (1762), 176. Is this wench an idiot, or a BITE? Marry me, with a pox!

20

  1751.  SMOLLETT, Peregrine Pickle, xcviii. From which circumstance it was conjectured that Peregrine was a BITE from the beginning, who had found credit on account of his effrontery and appearance, and imposed himself upon the town as a young gentleman of fortune.

21

  1787.  S. JENYNS, in Dodsley, III. 169. The fool would fain be thought a BITE.

22

  1812.  COMBE, Dr. Syntax, Picturesque, xix.

                Pray have you travell’d so far north,
To think we have so little wit,    As by such BITERS to be bit?

23

  5.  (common).—One who drives a hard bargain; a ‘close fist.’

24

  6.  (common).—A Yorkshireman. See Daily News, Sept. 11, 1883, and Yorkshire Post, Jan. 9, 1884. See TIKE.

25

  1883.  Daily News, 4 Sept., p. 5, col. 6. The great and puissant race known indifferently as ‘tykes’ or BITES.

26

  7.  (printers’).—An irregular white spot on the edge or corner of a printed page, caused by the frisket not being sufficiently cut out.

27

  1677.  MOXON, Mechanic Exercises, 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.

28

  1884.  BLADES, Caxton, 130. In ‘Speculum Vitæ Christi’ we actually find a BITE, half of the bottom line remaining unprinted.

29

  Verb (old).—1.  To deceive; to cheat; to swindle; to DO (q.v.); to TAKE IN (q.v.); TO SELL (q.v.).

30

  1669.  The Nicker Nicked, in Harleian Miscellany (ed. PARK), ii., 109. Then a rook … follows him close, and engages him in advantageous bets, and at length worries him, that is, gets all his money, and then they smile and say, ‘The lamb is BITTEN.’

31

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BIT, c. Robb’d, Cheated or Out-witted. Also Drunk, as, he has BIT his Grannam; he is very Drunk, BIT the Blow, c. accomplish’d the Theft, plaied the Cheat, or done the Feat: You have BIT a great Blow, c. you have Robb’d somebody of a great deal, or to a considerable value. Ibid. BITE the Bil from the Cull, c. whip the Sword from the Gentleman’s side. Ibid. BITE the Cully, c. to put the cheat on the silly Fellow. Ibid. BITE the Biter, c. to Rob the Rogue, Sharp the Sharper, or Cheat the Cheater.

32

  1709.  STEELE, Tatler, No. 12. Nay, he has BIT you fairly enough, that’s certain.

33

  1724.  A Journey through England. Many a poor German hath been BIT by an ordinary or his taylor, after this manner; they have suffered the poor wretch to run in debt, made him an extravagant bill, and then arrested him, and so forced him to pay their demands.

34

  1731.  FIELDING, The Lottery, Sc. 3. However, Madam, you are BIT as well as I am; for I am no more a lord, than you are a fortune.

35

  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 314. When Vulcan saw his dad was BIT.

36

  1822.  [NARES] Love in a Barn, an old ballad.

        He shall not have my maiden-head,
  I solemnly do swear;
But I’ll BITE him of a portion,
  Then marry with Ralph, my dear.

37

  1838.  THACKERAY, The Yellowplush Papers, x. ‘You were completely BITTEN, my boy—humbugged, bamboozled—ay, and by your old father, you dog.’

38

  1853.  THACKERAY, Barry Lyndon, xvii., 232. I have no particular pleasure in recalling my Newmarket doings. I was infernally BIT and bubbled in almost every one of my transactions there.

39

  1854.  MARTIN and AYTOUN, Bon Gaultier Ballads. ‘The BITER BIT.’

        And if you’d please, my mother dear, your poor desponding child,
Draw me a pot of beer, mother, and mother! draw it mild.

40

  2.  (common).—To strike a hard bargain.

41

  3.  (old).—To steal; e.g., to BITE the roger = to steal a portmanteau; to BITE the wiper = to purloin a handkerchief. (B. E. and GROSE).

42

  4.  (old).—To grieve.

43

  1614.  Terence in English. Male habet virum. It grieveth him, it BITETH him.

44

  Intj. (old).—1.  An equivalent of the modern SOLD! (q.v.) DONE! (q.v.) etc.

45

  1704.  CIBBER, The Careless Husband, Act. iii. Ld. Mo. ’Tis possible I may not have the same regard to her frown that your Lordship has. Ld. Fop. That’s BITE, I’m sure; he’d give a joint of his little finger to be as well with her as I am.

46

  1738.  SWIFT, Polite Conversation (conv. i.). Miss. I’m sure the gallows groans for you. Nev. BITE, Miss; I was but in jest.

47

  1714.  ADDISON, Spectator, No. 514. It is a superstition with some surgeons who beg the bodies of condemned malefactors, to go to the gaol and bargain for the carcass with the criminal himself…. The fellow who killed the officer of Newgate, very forwardly, and like a man who was willing to deal, told him, ‘Look you, Mr. Surgeon, that little dry fellow, who has been half starved all his life, is now half dead with fear, cannot answer your purpose…. Come, for twenty shillings I am your man.’ Says the Surgeon, ‘Done, there’s a guinea.’ This witty rogue took the money, and as soon as he had it in his fist, cries, ‘BITE, I am to be hanged in chains.’

48

  2.  (Charterhouse).—A warning = Cave!

49

  WHEN THE MAGGOT BITES, phr. (common).—When the fancy takes one; at one’s own sweet will. When a person acts from no apparent motive, he is said to have ‘a maggot in his head,’ ‘a bee in his bonnet’; or (in French) des rats dans la tête; in Platt-Deutsch, a mouse-nest in his head.

50

  TO BITE ONE’S HIPS, verb. phr. (tailors’).—To regret a word or action.

51

  TO BITE ONE’S NAME IN, verb. phr. (common).—To drink heavily; to tipple: see SCREWED.

52

  TO BITE ON THE BRIDLE (or BIT), verb. phr. (old).—To be pinched in circumstances; to be reduced; to be in difficulties.

53

  c. 1696.  B. E., A New Dictionary of the Canting Crew, s.v. BITE, TO BITE ON THE BIT; to be pinched, or reduced to hard Meat, a scanty or sorry sort of Living.

54

  TO BITE THE EAR (or NOSE), verb. phr. (old).—1.  An endearment: also BITE.

55

  1595.  SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet, ii. 4. Mer. I will BITE THEE BY THE EAR for that jest.

56

  1610.  JONSON, The Alchemist, ii. 3.

        Thou hast witch’d me, rogue; take, go.
            Slave, I could BITE THINE EAR.
Away, thou dost not care for me!

57

  1636.  SUCKLING, The Goblins, iii. [DODSLEY, Old Plays (REED)], x. 147. Nassurat. Rare rogue in buckram, LET ME BITE THEE.

58

  2.  (common).—To borrow.

59

  1879.  J. W. HORSLEY, ‘Autobiography of a Thief,’ in Macmillan’s Magazine, XL., 502. He used to want to BITE MY EAR (borrow) too often.

60

  TO BITE THE THUMB, verb. phr. (old).—To make a gesture of contempt: formerly regarded as a gross insult. [NARES: the thumb in the action represented a fig, and the whole was equivalent to ‘a fig for you.’] There are several gestures of this kind. That best known is probably TAKING A SIGHT (q.v.). A similar gesture of contempt is used in France.—The ‘BITING THE THUMB’ spoken of in Romeo and Juliet: the nail of the thumb is placed under the front teeth of the upper jaw, the thumb being jerked forward. Another contemptuous action is placing the thumb between the closed fore and middle fingers; while according to Darwin’s Expression of the Emotions, the Dakota Indians of North America show contempt ‘conventionally, by the hand being closed and held near the breast, then, as the forearm is suddenly extended, the hand is opened and the fingers separated from each other. If the person at whose expense the sign is made is present, the hand is moved towards him and the head sometimes averted from him.’ This sudden extension and opening of the hand perhaps indicates the dropping or throwing away a valueless object.

61

  1595.  SHAKESPEARE, Romeo and Juliet, i. 1. I will BITE MY THUMB at them; which is a disgrace to them if they bear it.

62

  1596.  LODGE, Incarnate Devils. Behold next I see Contempt marching forth, giuing mee the Fico WITH THIS THOMBE IN HIS MOUTH.

63

  1638.  RANDOLPH, The Muse’s Looking-Glass [DODSLEY, A Select Collection of Old Plays (REED), ix, 188].

                    Dogs and pistols!
TO BITE HIS THUMB at me!…
            Wear I a sword
To see men BITE THEIR THUMBS?

64

  1678.  Rules of Civility, transl. from French, p. 44. ’Tis no less disrespectful TO BITE THE NAIL OF YOUR THUMB, by way of scorn and disdain, and drawing your nail from between your teeth, to tell them you value not this what they can do.

65

  TO MAKE TWO BITES OF A CHERRY, verb. phr. (common).—To make more ado than is necessary.

66

  1824.  SCOTT, St. Ronan’s Well, x. I RECKON you’ll be selling out the whole—it’s needless making TWO BITES OF A CHERRY.

67

  GENERAL PHRASES:—TO BITE UPON THE BRIDLE = to wait impatiently like a restless horse; TO BITE THE DUST (GROUND, SAND), etc. = to die; TO BITE THE TONGUE = to repress speech.

68