Such smiling rogues as these, Like rats, oft bite
the holy cords atwain. --Shak.
2. To puncture, abrade, or sting with an organ (of some
insects) used in taking food.
3. To cause sharp pain, or smarting, to; to hurt or injure,
in a literal or a figurative sense; as, pepper bites the
mouth. ``Frosts do bite the meads.'' --Shak.
4. To cheat; to trick; to take in. [Colloq.] --Pope.
5. To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to; as, the
anchor bites the ground.
The last screw of the rack having been turned so
often that its purchase crumbled, . . . it turned
and turned with nothing to bite. --Dickens.
{To bite the dust}, {To bite the ground}, to fall in the
agonies of death; as, he made his enemy bite the dust.
{To bite in} (Etching), to corrode or eat into metallic
plates by means of an acid.
{To bite the thumb at} (any one), formerly a mark of
contempt, designed to provoke a quarrel; to defy. ``Do you
bite your thumb at us?'' --Shak.
{To bite the tongue}, to keep silence. --Shak.
2. To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which
causes such a sensation; to be pungent; as, it bites like
pepper or mustard.
3. To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or
injure; to have the property of so doing.
At the last it [wine] biteth like serpent, and
stingeth like an adder. --Prov. xxiii.
32.
4. To take a bait into the mouth, as a fish does; hence, to
take a tempting offer.
5. To take or keep a firm hold; as, the anchor bites.
I have known a very good fisher angle diligently
four or six hours for a river carp, and not have a
bite. --Walton.
2. The act of puncturing or abrading with an organ for taking
food, as is done by some insects.
3. The wound made by biting; as, the pain of a dog's or
snake's bite; the bite of a mosquito.
4. A morsel; as much as is taken at once by biting.
5. 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.
6. A cheat; a trick; a fraud. [Colloq.]
The baser methods of getting money by fraud and
bite, by deceiving and overreaching. --Humorist.
7. A sharper; one who cheats. [Slang] --Johnson.
8. (Print.) 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.