King James Bible Dictionary

BITE, verb transitive preterit tense bit; participle passive bit, bitten.

1. To break or crush with the teeth, as in eating; to pierce with the teeth, as a serpent; to seize with the teeth, as a dog.

2. To pinch or pain, as with cold; as a biting north wind; the frost bites.

3. To reproach with sarcasm; to treat with severity by words or writing; as, one poet praises, another bites.

4. To pierce, cut, or wound; as a biting falchion.

5. To make to smart, as acids bite the mouth.

6. To cheat; to trick.

The rogue was bit.

[Not elegant, but common.]

7. To enter the ground and hold fast, as the bill and palm of an anchor.

8. To injure by angry contention.

If ye bite and devour one another. Galatians 5:15.

BITE, noun The seizure of any thing by the teeth of an animal, as the bite of a dog; or with the mouth, as of a fish.

1. The wound made by the teeth.

2. A morsel; as much as is taken at once by biting; a mouthful.

3. A cheat; a trick; a fraud. [A low word.]

4. A sharper; one who cheats.

BI'TER, noun One who bites; that which bites; a fish apt to take bait.

1. One who cheats or defrauds.

BITERN'ATE, adjective [Latin bis and ternus, three.] In botany, doubly ternate, as when a petiole has three ternate leaflets.