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bite

Pronunciation: /baɪt/

The English word “bite” has 20 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To cut into something by clamping the teeth.
  2. To hold something by clamping one's teeth.
  3. To attack with the teeth.
  4. To behave aggressively; to reject advances.
  5. To take hold; to establish firm contact with.
  6. To have significant effect, often negative.
  7. To bite a baited hook or other lure and thus be caught.
  8. To accept something offered, often secretly or deceptively, to cause some action by the acceptor.
  9. To sting.
  10. To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which causes such a sensation; to be pungent.
  11. To cause sharp pain or damage to; to hurt or injure.
  12. To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing.
  13. To take or keep a firm hold.
  14. To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to.
  15. To lack quality; to be worthy of derision; to suck.
  16. To perform oral sex on. Used in invective.
  17. To plagiarize, to imitate.
  18. To deceive or defraud; to take in.

noun

  1. The act of biting.
  2. The wound left behind after having been bitten.

Etymology

From Middle English biten, from Old English bītan (“bite”), from Proto-West Germanic *bītan, from Proto-Germanic *bītaną (“bite”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“split”). Cognates include Saterland Frisian biete (“bite”), West Frisian bite (“bite”), Dutch bijten (“bite”), German Low German bieten (“bite”), German beißen, beissen (“bite”), Danish bide (“bite”), Swedish bita (“bite”), Norwegian…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.