through all stages, from jocular hoaxing to downright swindling. Also in the sense of disappointment, as in the old proverb 'the biter bit.' A man is bitten when he burns his fingers meddling in matters, which, though promising well, turn out failures.—See also Cross bite.
1711. Steele, Spectator, No. 156, ¶2. It was a common bite with him, to lay Suspicions that he was favoured by a Lady's Enemy.
1721. Amherst, Terræ Fil., ix., 43. Sharpers would not frequent gaming-tables, if the men of fortune knew the BITE.
1817. Scott, Rob Roy, ch. ix. 'It's all a bam, ma'am—all a bamboozle and a bite, that affair of his illness.'
1860. Sat. Review, Ap. 14, 475, 2. That form of practical joking, which in the time of 'The Spectator,' was known as a bite . . . in the popular slang of the day, is designated 'a sell.'
1883. Daily News, Ap. 18, p. 5, col. 4. Lord Randolph Churchill, we fear, has been making Mr. Gladstone the victim of what, in the slang of Addison's time, would have been called a bite, and what in the slang of our own time is called a 'sell.'
4. (old.)—A sharper; cheat; trickster. Cf., Bilk. See Rook for synonyms.
1742. Fielding, Miss Lucy (1762), 176. Is this wench an idiot, or a bite? Marry me, with a pox!
1751. Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, ch. xcviii. From which circumstance it was conjectured that Peregrine was a bite from the beginning, who had found credit on account of his effrontery and appearance, and imposed himself upon the town as a young gentleman of fortune.
1787. S. Jenyns, in Dodsley, III., 169. The fool would fain be thought a bite.
5. (popular.)—Applied in a transferred sense to anybody or anything suspected of being different to what it appears, but not necessarily in a bad sense.
1846. Brackenridge, Mod. Chiv., 21. The jockeys suspected that the horse was what they call a bite, that under the appearance of leanness and stiffness, was concealed some hidden quality of swiftness.
6. (common.)—One who drives a hard bargain; a 'close fist.
7. (familiar.)—A nickname for a Yorkshireman.—See Daily News, Sept. 11, 1883, and Yorkshire Post, Jan. 9, 1884.
1883. Daily News, Sept. 4, p. 5, col. 6. The great and puissant race known indifferently as 'tykes' or bites.
8. (printers'.)—An irregular white spot on the edge or corner of a printed page, caused by the frisket not being sufficiently cut out.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. in Savage Dict. Print, s.v. Bite. If the frisket is not sufficiently cut away, but covers some part of the form, so that it prints on the frisket, it is called a bite. [m.]
1884. Blades, Caxton, 130. In 'Speculum Vitæ Christi' we actually find a bite, half of the bottom line remaining unprinted. [m.]
Verb (old).—1. To deceive; cheat; swindle; to 'do' or 'take in.' In modern colloquial English to slick or to sell (q.v). Formerly used both transitively and passively; now only in latter.
1669. Nicker Nicked, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 109. Then a rook . . . follows him close, and engages him in advantageous bets, and at length worries him, that is gets all his money, and then they smile and say, 'The lamb is bitten.'
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 12. Nay, he has bit you fairly enough, that's certain.
1724. A Journey through England. Many a poor German hath been bit by an ordinary or his taylor, after this manner; they have suffered the poor wretch to run in debt, made him an extravagant bill, and then arrested him, and so forced him to pay their demands.
