bite \bite\ bimact, v. t. imp. bit bi^t; p. p.
   bitten bi^t"t'n, bit; p. pr.  vb. n. biting. oe.
   biten, as. bimactan; akin to d. bijten, os. bimactan,
   ohg. bimaczan, g. beissen, goth. beitan, icel. bimacta,
   sw. bita, dan. bide, l. findere to cleave, skr. bhid to
   cleave. root87. cf. fissure.
   1913 webster
   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.
      1913 webster

            such smiling rogues as these,
            like rats, oft bite the holy cords atwain. --shak.
      1913 webster

   2. to puncture, abrade, or sting with an organ of some
      insects used in taking food.
      1913 webster

   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." --shak.
      1913 webster

   4. to cheat; to trick; to take in. colloq. --pope.
      1913 webster

   5. to take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to; as, the
      anchor bites the ground.
      1913 webster

            the last screw of the rack having been turned so
            often that its purchase crumbled, . . . it turned
            and turned with nothing to bite.      --dickens.
      1913 webster

   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?" --shak.

   to bite the tongue, to keep silence. --shak.
      1913 webster
see also:
bit bitten biting fissure to bite the dust to bite the ground 
to bite in to bite the thumb at to bite the tongue