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American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

  1. v. To cut, grip, or tear with or as if with the teeth.
  2. v. To pierce the skin of with the teeth, fangs, or mouthparts.
  3. v. To sting with a stinger.
  4. v. To cut into with or as if with a sharp instrument: The ax bit the log deeply.
  5. v. To grip, grab, or seize: bald treads that couldn't bite the icy road; bitten by a sudden desire to travel.
  6. v. To eat into; corrode.
  7. v. To cause to sting or be painful: cold that bites the skin; a conscience bitten by remorse.
  8. v. To grip, cut into, or injure something with or as if with the teeth.
  9. v. To have a stinging effect.
  10. v. To have a sharp taste.
  11. v. To take or swallow bait.
  12. v. To be taken in by a ploy or deception: tried to sell the Brooklyn Bridge, but no one bit.
  13. v. Vulgar Slang To be highly disagreeable or annoying.
  14. n. The act of biting.
  15. n. A skin wound or puncture produced by an animal's teeth or mouthparts: the bite of an insect.
  16. n. A stinging or smarting sensation.
  17. n. An incisive, penetrating quality: the bite of satire.
  18. n. An amount removed by or as if by an act of biting: Rezoning took a bite out of the town's residential area.
  19. n. An excerpt or fragment taken from something larger, such as a film.
  20. n. An amount of food taken into the mouth at one time; a mouthful.
  21. n. Informal A light meal or snack.
  22. n. The act or an instance of taking bait: fished all day without a bite; an ad that got a few bites but no final sales.
  23. n. A secure grip or hold applied by a tool or machine upon a working surface.
  24. n. The part of a tool or machine that presses against and maintains a firm hold on a working surface.
  25. n. Dentistry The angle at which the upper and lower teeth meet; occlusion.
  26. n. The corrosive action of acid upon an etcher's metal plate.
  27. n. Slang An amount of money appropriated or withheld: trying to avoid the tax bite.
  28. idiom. bite off more than (one) can chew To decide or agree to do more than one can finally accomplish.
  29. idiom. bite (someone's) head off To respond to a comment in an angry or reproachful way.
  30. idiom. bite the bullet Slang To face a painful situation bravely and stoically.
  31. idiom. bite the dust Slang To fall dead, especially in combat.
  32. idiom. bite the dust Slang To be defeated.
  33. idiom. bite the dust Slang To come to an end.
  34. idiom. bite the hand that feeds (one) To repay generosity or kindness with ingratitude and injury.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

  1. To cut, pierce, or divide with the teeth: as, to bite an apple.
  2. To remove with the teeth; cut away by biting: with off, out, etc.: as, to bite off a piece of an apple, or bite a piece out of it; to bite off one's nose to spite one's face.
  3. To grasp or grip with the teeth; press the teeth strongly upon: as, to bite the thumb or lip. (See phrases below.)
  4. To sting, as an insect: as, to be bitten by a flea.
  5. To cause a sharp or smarting pain in; cause to smart: as, pepper bites the mouth.
  6. To nip, as with frost; blast, blight, or injure.
  7. To take fast hold of; grip or catch into or on, so as to act with effect; get purchase from, as by friction: as, the anchor bites the ground; the file bites the iron; the wheels bite the rails.
  8. In etching, to corrode or eat into with aquafortis or other mordant, as a metal surface that has been laid bare with an etching-needle: often with in: as, the plate is now bitten in.
  9. To cheat; trick; deceive; overreach: now only in the past participle: as, the biter was bit.
  10. Synonyms See eat.
  11. To have a habit of biting or snapping at persons or things: as, a dog that bites; a biting horse.
  12. To pierce, sting, or inflict injury by biting, literally or figuratively.
  13. To take a bait, as a fish: either literally or figuratively.
  14. To take and keep hold; grip or catch into another object, so as to act on it with effect, obtain purchase or leverage-power from it, and the like: as, the anchor bites; cog-wheels bite when the teeth of one enter into the notches of the other and cause it to revolve.
  15. To repress one's thoughts, or restrain one's feelings.
  16. n. The act of cutting, piercing, or wounding with the teeth or as with the teeth: as, the bite of a dog; the bite of a crab.
  17. n. The seizing of bait by a fish: as, waiting for a bite.
  18. n. A wound made by the teeth of an animal or by any of the biting, piercing, or stinging organs of the lower animals: as, a dog's bite; a mosquito-bite; a flea-bite.
  19. n. As much as is taken at once by biting; a mouthful: as, a bite of bread.
  20. n. Food; victuals: as, three days without either bite or sup.
  21. n. The catch or hold that one object or one part of a mechanical apparatus has on another; specifically, in a file, the roughness or power of abrasion: as, the bite of an anchor on the ground; the bite of the wheels of a locomotive on the rails.
  22. n. In etching, the corrosion effected by the acid.
  23. n. In printing, an imperfection in a printed sheet caused by part of the impression being received on the frisket or paper mask.
  24. n. 9. A cheat; a trick; a fraud.
  25. n. A sharper; one who cheats.


  1. v. transitive To cut off a piece by clamping the teeth.
  2. v. transitive To hold something by clamping one’s teeth.
  3. v. intransitive To attack with the teeth.
  4. v. intransitive To behave aggressively; to reject advances.
  5. v. intransitive To take hold; to establish firm contact with.
  6. v. intransitive To have significant effect, often negative.
  7. v. intransitive, of a fish To bite a baited hook or other lure and thus be caught.
  8. v. intransitive, metaphor To accept something offered, often secretly or deceptively, to cause some action by the acceptor.
  9. v. intransitive, transitive, of an insect To sting.
  10. v. intransitive, slang To lack quality; to be worthy of derision; to suck.
  11. v. transitive, informal, vulgar To perform oral sex on. Used in invective.
  12. v. intransitive, African American Vernacular, slang To plagiarize, to imitate.
  13. n. The act of biting.
  14. n. The wound left behind after having been bitten.
  15. n. The swelling of one's skin caused by an insect's mouthparts or sting.
  16. n. A piece of food of a size that would be produced by biting; a mouthful.
  17. n. slang Something unpleasant.
  18. n. slang An act of plagiarism.
  19. n. A small meal or snack.
  20. n. figuratively aggression
  22. n. colloquial, dated A cheat; a trick; a fraud.
  23. n. colloquial, dated, slang A sharper; one who cheats.
  24. n. printing 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.

GNU Webster's 1913

  1. v. To seize with the teeth, so that they enter or nip the thing seized; to lacerate, crush, or wound with the teeth.
  2. v. To puncture, abrade, or sting with an organ (of some insects) used in taking food.
  3. v. To cause sharp pain, or smarting, to; to hurt or injure, in a literal or a figurative sense.
  4. v. colloq. To cheat; to trick; to take in.
  5. v. To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to.
  7. v. To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which causes such a sensation; to be pungent.
  8. v. To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing.
  9. v. To take a bait into the mouth, as a fish does; hence, to take a tempting offer.
  10. v. To take or keep a firm hold.
  12. n. The act of puncturing or abrading with an organ for taking food, as is done by some insects.
  13. n. The wound made by biting.
  14. n. A morsel; as much as is taken at once by biting.
  16. n. colloq. A cheat; a trick; a fraud.
  17. n. Slang A sharper; one who cheats.

WordNet 3.0

  1. v. deliver a sting to
  2. n. wit having a sharp and caustic quality
  3. v. to grip, cut off, or tear with or as if with the teeth or jaws
  4. n. a portion removed from the whole
  5. v. cause a sharp or stinging pain or discomfort
  6. n. the act of gripping or chewing off with the teeth and jaws
  7. v. penetrate or cut, as with a knife
  8. n. (angling) an instance of a fish taking the bait
  9. n. a painful wound caused by the thrust of an insect's stinger into skin
  10. n. a wound resulting from biting by an animal or a person
  11. n. a small amount of solid food; a mouthful
  12. n. a strong odor or taste property
  13. n. a light informal meal


  1. From Old English bītan, from Proto-Germanic *bītanan, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”). Cognates include Old Norse bíta (Danish bide), Gothic 𐌱𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (beitan), German beißen, Ancient Greek φείδομαι (feídomai), Sanskrit भिद् (bhid, "to break"), Latin findo ("split"). (Wiktionary)
  2. Middle English biten, from Old English bītan; see bheid- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)


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  • treeseed In hip-hop parlance
    transitive verb
    to plagiarize, typically in reference to a hip-hop artist stealing another hip-hop artist's lyrics. Feb 24, 2008


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‘bite’ has been looked up 4324 times, added to 30 lists, commented on 1 time, and has a Scrabble score of 6.