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Biting   /bˈaɪtɪŋ/   Listen
verb
Bite  v. t.  (past bit; past part. bitten; pres. part. biting)  
1.
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. "Such smiling rogues as these, Like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwain."
2.
To puncture, abrade, or sting with an organ (of some insects) used in taking food.
3.
To cause sharp pain, or smarting, to; to hurt or injure, in a literal or a figurative sense; as, pepper bites the mouth. "Frosts do bite the meads."
4.
To cheat; to trick; to take in. (Colloq.)
5.
To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to; as, the anchor bites the ground. "The last screw of the rack having been turned so often that its purchase crumbled,... it turned and turned with nothing to bite."
To bite the dust, To bite the ground, to fall in the agonies of death; as, he made his enemy bite the dust.
To bite in (Etching), to corrode or eat into metallic plates by means of an acid.
To bite the thumb at (any one), formerly a mark of contempt, designed to provoke a quarrel; to defy. "Do you bite your thumb at us?"
To bite the tongue, to keep silence.


Bite  v. i.  (past bit; past part. bitten; pres. part. biting)  
1.
To seize something forcibly with the teeth; to wound with the teeth; to have the habit of so doing; as, does the dog bite?
2.
To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which causes such a sensation; to be pungent; as, it bites like pepper or mustard.
3.
To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing. "At the last it (wine) biteth like serpent, and stingeth like an adder."
4.
To take a bait into the mouth, as a fish does; hence, to take a tempting offer.
5.
To take or keep a firm hold; as, the anchor bites.


adjective
Biting  adj.  That bites; sharp; cutting; sarcastic; caustic. "A biting affliction." "A biting jest."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Biting" Quotes from Famous Books



... half so conducive to Secession and rebellion as Slavery itself. Had there never been an Abolitionist in the North, the self-generated arrogance of the 'institution' must have spontaneously impelled the Southern party to treason. The exuberant insolence which induced the most biting expressions of contempt for labor and serfs, was fully developed in the South long before the days of Garrison; long even before the Quakers of Pennsylvania put forth their protest against slavery, a full century ago. ...
— Continental Monthly, Vol. I, No. V, May, 1862 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... in bronze and arms, And kept his body supple, and his eye Keen, and the coming of his hooves was thunder, Wherever battle fell. He bore a flame, Zealous and pure, in the heavens of his mind, To serve and to instruct. Aye, to instruct— There was the biting blemish, as we ...
— Preludes 1921-1922 • John Drinkwater
... Many dogs are abroad—snarling dogs, biting dogs, envious dogs, mad dogs; beware of exciting the fury of such with your flaming red velvet and dazzling ermine. It makes ragged Lazarus doubly hungry to see Dives feasting in cloth-of-gold; and so if I were a beauteous duchess . . . Silence, vain man! Can the ...
— Little Travels and Roadside Sketches • William Makepeace Thackeray
... and spluttered, for the hot fluid scalded him, and a roar of laughter saved the situation. Made as it was over a cup of very smoky tea, that compact was carried out faithfully under parching heat and bitter cold, in the biting dust of alkali and under the silence of the primeval bush. For an hour we lounged smoking and chatting in ox-hide chairs, watching the red glow from the range door flicker upon the guns and axes on the wall, or the moonlight broaden across the silent grass outside each time ...
— Lorimer of the Northwest • Harold Bindloss
... eyes shrewdly fixed upon his brother swung his books to his other hand and shrugged his shoulders. He, too, was looking in fancy beyond the misty hills, but not to the flight of geese. He saw cities with shaft-like structures biting the sky and dark banners of smoke floating above the clash of conflict. His heart was burning to be at ...
— Destiny • Charles Neville Buck


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