bite

Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search
See also: Bite, bitē, bitė, and bǐtè

English[edit]

English Wikipedia has articles on:
Wikipedia

Etymology[edit]

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 Bokmål bite (“bite”), Norwegian Nynorsk bita (“bite”), Icelandic bíta (“bite”), Gothic 𐌱𐌴𐌹𐍄𐌰𐌽 (beitan, “bite”), Latin findō (“split”), Ancient Greek φείδομαι (pheídomai), Sanskrit भिद् (bhid, “break”).

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

bite (third-person singular simple present bites, present participle biting, simple past bit, past participle bitten or (rare) bit)

  1. (transitive) To cut into something by clamping the teeth.
    As soon as you bite that sandwich, you'll know how good it is.
  2. (transitive) To hold something by clamping one's teeth.
  3. (intransitive) To attack with the teeth.
    That dog is about to bite!
  4. (intransitive) To behave aggressively; to reject advances.
    If you see me, come and say hello. I don't bite.
  5. (intransitive) To take hold; to establish firm contact with.
    I needed snow chains to make the tires bite.
  6. (intransitive) To have significant effect, often negative.
    For homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages, rising interest will really bite.
  7. (intransitive, of a fish) To bite a baited hook or other lure and thus be caught.
    Are the fish biting today?
  8. (intransitive, figuratively) To accept something offered, often secretly or deceptively, to cause some action by the acceptor.
    I've planted the story. Do you think they'll bite?
  9. (intransitive, transitive, of an insect) To sting.
    These mosquitoes are really biting today!
  10. (intransitive) To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which causes such a sensation; to be pungent.
    It bites like pepper or mustard.
  11. (transitive, sometimes figuratively) To cause sharp pain or damage to; to hurt or injure.
    Pepper bites the mouth.
  12. (intransitive) To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing.
  13. (intransitive) To take or keep a firm hold.
    The anchor bites.
  14. (transitive) To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to.
    The anchor bites the ground.
  15. (intransitive, slang) To lack quality; to be worthy of derision; to suck.
    This music really bites.
  16. (transitive, informal, vulgar) To perform oral sex on. Used in invective.
    You don't like that I sat on your car? Bite me.
  17. (intransitive, African-American Vernacular, slang) To plagiarize, to imitate.
    He always be biting my moves.
  18. (obsolete) To deceive or defraud; to take in.

Hyponyms[edit]

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

Terms related to bite (verb senses)

Descendants[edit]

  • Sranan Tongo: beti

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Noun[edit]

English Wikipedia has an article on:
Wikipedia

bite (plural bites)

  1. The act of biting.
  2. The wound left behind after having been bitten.
    That snake bite really hurts!
  3. The swelling of one's skin caused by an insect's mouthparts or sting.
    After just one night in the jungle I was covered with mosquito bites.
  4. A piece of food of a size that would be produced by biting; a mouthful.
    There were only a few bites left on the plate.
  5. (slang) Something unpleasant.
    That's really a bite!
  6. (slang) An act of plagiarism.
    That song is a bite of my song!
  7. A small meal or snack.
    I'll have a quick bite to quiet my stomach until dinner.
  8. (figuratively) aggression
    • 2011 March 2, Saj Chowdhury, “Man City 3 - 0 Aston Villa”, in BBC‎[1]:
      City scored the goals but periods of ball possession were shared - the difference being Villa lacked bite in the opposition final third.
  9. 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.
  10. (colloquial, dated) A cheat; a trick; a fraud.
    • 1725, Thomas Gordon, The Humorist
      The baser methods of getting money by fraud and bite, by deceiving and overreaching.
  11. (colloquial, dated, slang) A sharper; one who cheats.
    • 1751, [Tobias] Smollett, “Pickle Seems Tolerably Well Reconciled to His Cage; […] ”, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume IV, London: Harrison and Co., […], published 1781, OCLC 316121541, page 385, column 1:
      [I]t was conjectured, that Peregrine was a bite from the beginning, who had found credit on account of his effrontery and appearance, and impoſed himſelf upon the town as a young gentleman of fortune.
  12. (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.
  13. (slang) A cut, a proportion of profits; an amount of money.
    • 1951, William S. Burroughs, in Harris (ed.), Letters 1945–59, Penguin 2009, p. 92:
      I know three Americans who are running a bar. The cops come in all the time for a bite.
  14. (television) Short for sound bite.
    • 2015, Robert A. Papper, Broadcast News and Writing Stylebook
      cold open: Starting a TV newscast with video or a bite from the lead story rather than starting with the anchor or the standard show open.

Synonyms[edit]

  • (act of biting):
  • (wound left behind after having been bitten):
  • (swelling caused by an insect's mouthparts or sting): sting
  • (piece of food of a size that would be produced by biting): mouthful
  • (slang: something unpleasant):
  • (slang: act of plagiarism):
  • (small meal or snack): snack
  • (figuratively: aggression):

Derived terms[edit]

Terms derived from bite (noun senses)

Related terms[edit]

Descendants[edit]

Translations[edit]

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Anagrams[edit]

Czech[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

bite

  1. vocative singular of bit

French[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

bite f (plural bites)

  1. (slang, vulgar) knob, cock, dick
    • 2006, “Je veux te voir”, in Pop Up, performed by Yelle:
      Je veux te voir / Dans un film pornographique / En action avec ta bite / Forme potatoes ou bien frites
      (please add an English translation of this quote)
    • 2012, “Wesh Morray”, in Futur, performed by Booba:
      J'sors ma bite je la baise, tu sors ton biff tu la sors
      (please add an English translation of this quote)
    • 2015 [2004], Stéphane Dompierre, Un petit pas pour l'homme, →ISBN, page 57:
      J’ai la bite tellement raide que si son copain passe, il pourra me l’arracher et me péter les dents avec. Je vis dans un film érotique et je ne baise pas. Je n’y comprends rien.
      (please add an English translation of this quote)
    Il a souri quand j'ai mis la main entre ses cuisses et je me suis mise à frotter sa grosse bite.
    He smiled when I put my hand between his thighs and started to rub his big cock.

Derived terms[edit]

Further reading[edit]

Garo[edit]

Etymology[edit]

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun[edit]

bite

  1. fruit

Khumi Chin[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

Adjective[edit]

bite

  1. hot

Related terms[edit]

References[edit]

  • K. E. Herr (2011) The phonological interpretation of minor syllables, applied to Lemi Chin‎[2], Payap University, page 74

Latvian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Balto-Slavic *bitē (compare Lithuanian bitė), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰey-, *bʰī-. Cognate to English bee.

Noun[edit]

bite f (5th declension)

  1. bee

Declension[edit]

Declension of bite (5th declension)
singular (vienskaitlis) plural (daudzskaitlis)
nominative (nominatīvs) bite bites
accusative (akuzatīvs) biti bites
genitive (ģenitīvs) bites bišu
dative (datīvs) bitei bitēm
instrumental (instrumentālis) biti bitēm
locative (lokatīvs) bitē bitēs
vocative (vokatīvs) bite bites

Murui Huitoto[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-Huitoto-Ocaina *bíʔte.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): [ˈbi.tɛ]
  • Hyphenation: bi‧te

Verb[edit]

bite

  1. (intransitive) To come.

Derived terms[edit]

References[edit]

  • Shirley Burtch (1983) Diccionario Huitoto Murui (Tomo I) (Linguistica Peruana No. 20)‎[3] (in Spanish), Yarinacocha, Peru: Instituto Lingüístico de Verano, page 36
  • Katarzyna Izabela Wojtylak (2017) A grammar of Murui (Bue): a Witotoan language of Northwest Amazonia.‎[4], Townsville: James Cook University press (PhD thesis), page 76

Neapolitan[edit]

Noun[edit]

bite

  1. plural of bita

North Frisian[edit]

Verb[edit]

bite

  1. (Halligen), (Mooring) To bite.

Norwegian Bokmål[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Norse bíta, from Proto-Germanic *bītaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”).

Verb[edit]

bite (present tense biter, past tense bet or beit, past participle bitt, present participle bitende)

  1. To bite.

Derived terms[edit]

Related terms[edit]

References[edit]

Norwegian Nynorsk[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Norse bíta, from Proto-Germanic *bītaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split”). Akin to English bite.

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

bite (present tense bit, past tense beit, supine bite, past participle biten, present participle bitande, imperative bit)

  1. to bite

References[edit]

Old English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Proto-West Germanic *biti.

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

bite m

  1. bite

Descendants[edit]

Polish[edit]

Pronunciation[edit]

  • IPA(key): /ˈbi.tɛ/
  • Rhymes: -itɛ
  • Syllabification: bi‧te

Participle[edit]

bite

  1. inflection of bity:
    1. neuter nominative/accusative/vocative singular
    2. nonvirile nominative/accusative/vocative plural

Turkish[edit]

Noun[edit]

bite

  1. dative singular of bit

West Frisian[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From Old Frisian bīta.

Pronunciation[edit]

Verb[edit]

bite

  1. To bite.

Inflection[edit]

Strong class 1
infinitive bite
3rd singular past biet
past participle biten
infinitive bite
long infinitive biten
gerund biten n
indicative present tense past tense
1st singular byt biet
2nd singular bytst bietst
3rd singular byt biet
plural bite bieten
imperative byt
participles bitend biten

Further reading[edit]

  • “bite (I)”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011
Retrieved from "https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=bite&oldid=66220780"