<p><strong>Verb (used with object)</strong></p><ul><li>to cut, wound, or tear with the teeth: She bit the apple greedily.</li><li>to grip or hold with the teeth: Stop biting your lip!</li><li>to sting, as does an insect.</li><li>to cause to smart or sting: an icy wind that bit our faces.</li><li>to sever with the teeth (often followed by off): Don't bite your nails.</li><li>to start to eat (often followed by into): She bit into her steak.</li><li>to clamp the teeth firmly on or around (often followed by on): He bit hard on the stick while they removed the bullet from his leg.</li><li>Informal: to take advantage of; cheat; deceive: I got bitten in a mail-order swindle.</li><li>to annoy or upset; anger: What's biting you, sorehead?</li><li>to eat into or corrode, as does an acid.</li><li>to cut or pierce with, or as with, a weapon: The sword split his helmet and bit him fatally.</li><li>Etching: to etch with acid (a copper or other surface) in such parts as are left bare of a protective coating.</li><li>to take firm hold or act effectively on: We need a clamp to bite the wood while the glue dries.</li><li>Archaic: to make a decided impression on; affect.</li></ul><p><strong>Verb (used without object)</strong></p><ul><li>to press the teeth into something; attack with the jaws, bill, sting, etc.; snap: Does your parrot bite?</li><li>Angling: (of fish) to take bait: The fish aren't biting today.</li><li>to accept an offer or suggestion, especially one intended to trick or deceive: I knew it was a mistake, but I bit anyway.</li><li>Informal: to admit defeat in guessing: I'll bite, who is it?</li><li>to act effectively; grip; hold: This wood is so dry the screws don't bite.</li><li>Slang: to be notably repellent, disappointing, poor, etc.; suck.</li></ul><p><strong>Noun</strong></p><ul><li>an act of biting.</li><li>a wound made by biting: a deep bite.</li><li>a cutting, stinging, or nipping effect: the bite of an icy wind; the bite of whiskey on the tongue.</li><li>a piece bitten off: Chew each bite carefully.</li><li>a small meal: Let's have a bite before the theater.</li><li>a portion severed from the whole: the government's weekly bite of my paycheck.</li><li>a morsel of food: not a bite to eat.</li><li>the occlusion of one's teeth: The dentist said I had a good bite.</li><li>Machinery: the catch or hold that one object or one part of a mechanical apparatus has on another.</li><li>a surface brought into contact to obtain a hold or grip, as in a lathe chuck or similar device.</li><li>the amount of material that a mechanical shovel or the like can carry at one time.</li><li>sharpness; incisiveness; effectiveness: The bite of his story is spoiled by his slovenly style.</li><li>the roughness of the surface of a file.</li><li>Metalworking: the maximum angle, measured from the center of a roll in a rolling mill, between a perpendicular and a line to the point of contact where a given object to be rolled will enter between the rolls.</li></ul>