Part 1150

<p><b>3.</b> <def>To cause sharp pain, or smarting, to; to hurt or injure, in a literal or a figurative sense; <as>as, pepper <ex>bites</ex> the mouth</as>.</def> "Frosts do <i>bite</i> the meads."

<i> Shak.</i>

<p><b>4.</b> <def>To cheat; to trick; to take in.</def> <mark>[Colloq.]</mark>

<i>Pope.</i>

<p><b>5.</b> <def>To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to; <as>as, the anchor <ex>bites</ex> the ground</as>.</def>

<blockquote>The last screw of the rack having been turned so often that its purchase crumbled, . . . it turned and turned with nothing to <b>bite</b>. <i>Dickens.</i></blockquote>

<cs><mcol><col>To bite the dust</col>, <col>To bite the ground</col></mcol>, <cd>to fall in the agonies of death; as, he made his enemy <i>bite the dust<i>.</cd> -- <col>To bite in</col> <fld>(Etching)</fld>, <cd>to corrode or eat into metallic plates by means of an acid.</cd> -- <col>To bite the thumb at</col> (any one), <cd>formerly a mark of contempt, designed to provoke a quarrel; to defy.</cd> "Do you <i>bite your thumb at<i> us ?" <i>Shak</i>. -- <col>To bite the tongue</col>, <cd>to keep silence.</cd> <i>Shak</i>.</cs>

<h1>Bite</h1> <Xpage=149>

<hw>Bite</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>v. i.</tt> <p><b>1.</b> <def>To seize something forcibly with the teeth; to wound with the teeth; to have the habit of so doing; as, does the dog <i>bite</i>?</def>

<p><b>2.</b> <def>To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which causes such a sensation; to be pungent; <as>as, it <ex>bites</ex> like pepper or mustard</as>.</def>

<p><b>3.</b> <def>To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing.</def>

<blockquote>At the last it <b>biteth</b> like serpent, and stingeth like an adder. <i>Prov. xxiii. 32.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>4.</b> <def>To take a bait into the mouth, as a fish does; hence, to take a tempting offer.</def>

<p><b>5.</b> <def>To take or keep a firm hold; <as>as, the anchor <ex>bites</ex></as>.</def>

<h1>Bite</h1> <Xpage=149>

<hw>Bite</hw>, <tt>n.</tt> <ety>[OE. <ets>bite</ets>, <ets>bit</ets>, <ets>bitt</ets>, AS. <ets>bite</ets> bite, fr. <ets>b\'c6tan</ets> to bite, akin to Icel. <ets>bit</ets>, OS. <ets>biti</ets>, G. <ets>biss</ets>. See <er>Bite</er>, <ets>v</ets>., and cf. <er>Bit</er>.]</ety> <p><b>1.</b> <def>The act of seizing with the teeth or mouth; the act of wounding or separating with the teeth or mouth; a seizure with the teeth or mouth, as of a bait; <as>as, to give anything a hard <ex>bite</ex></as>.</def>

<blockquote>I have known a very good fisher angle diligently four or six hours for a river carp, and not have a <b>bite</b>. <i>Walton.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>2.</b> <def>The act of puncturing or abrading with an organ for taking food, as is done by some insects.</def>

<p><b>3.</b> <def>The wound made by biting; <as>as, the pain of a dog's or snake's <ex>bite</ex>; the <ex>bite</ex> of a mosquito.</as></def>

<p><b>4.</b> <def>A morsel; as much as is taken at once by biting.</def>

<p><b>5.</b> <def>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.</def>

<p><b>6.</b> <def>A cheat; a trick; a fraud.</def> <mark>[Colloq.]</mark>

<blockquote>The baser methods of getting money by fraud and <b>bite</b>, by deceiving and overreaching. <i>Humorist.</i></blockquote>

<p><b>7.</b> <def>A sharper; one who cheats.</def> <mark>[Slang]</mark>

<i>Johnson.</i>

<p><b>8.</b> <fld>(Print.)</fld> <def>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.</def>

<h1>Biter</h1> <Xpage=149>

<hw>Bit"er</hw> <tt>(?)</tt>, <tt>n.</tt> <p><b>1.</b> <def>One who, or that which, bites; that which bites often, or is inclined to bite, as a dog or fish.</def> "Great barkers are no <i>biters</i>."