bite

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   To cut into or grip something with your teeth.

   As soon as you bite that sandwich, you'll know how good it is.

2. 2
   verb

   To attack a person or animal with the teeth.

   Be careful, that dog might bite!

3. 3
   verb

   To sting, the way an insect does.

   The mosquitoes bit me all over my legs.

4. 4
   noun

   An act of taking the bait by a fish when you are fishing.

   After an hour of fishing, I still hadn't had a single bite.

Multiword verbs with bite

• bite off Phrasal verb A2

  to remove a piece of something by closing the teeth on it

Appears in

Simplified etymology

Bite is an Old English word with relatives in many other European languages. Its ancestral root, which also produced bit and bitter, probably meant “to split” or “to cleave.”

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”)…

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary