bite

bite is a Verb

Definition:

[1] To seize with the teeth, so that they enter or nip the thing seized; to lacerate, crush, or wound with the teeth; as, to bite an apple; to bite a crust; the dog bit a man. 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.