1. (v. t.) 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.

2. (v. t.) To puncture, abrade, or sting with an organ (of some insects) used in taking food.

3. (v. t.) To cause sharp pain, or smarting, to; to hurt or injure, in a literal or a figurative sense; as, pepper bites the mouth.

4. (v. t.) To cheat; to trick; to take in.

5. (v. t.) To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to; as, the anchor bites the ground.

6. (v. i.) To seize something forcibly with the teeth; to wound with the teeth; to have the habit of so doing; as, does the dog bite?

7. (v. i.) To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which causes such a sensation; to be pungent; as, it bites like pepper or mustard.

8. (v. i.) To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing.

9. (v. i.) To take a bait into the mouth, as a fish does; hence, to take a tempting offer.

10. (v. i.) To take or keep a firm hold; as, the anchor bites.

11. (n.) 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, to give anything a hard bite.

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; as, the pain of a dog's or snake's bite; the bite of a mosquito.

14. (n.) A morsel; as much as is taken at once by biting.

15. (n.) 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.

16. (n.) A cheat; a trick; a fraud.

17. (n.) A sharper; one who cheats.

18. (n.) 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.