Webster's Unabridged Dictionary - Letter B - Page 48

Bite (v. t.) To cause sharp pain, or smarting, to; to hurt or injure, in a literal or a figurative sense; as, pepper bites the mouth.

Bite (v. t.) To cheat; to trick; to take in.

Bite (v. t.) To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to; as, the anchor bites the ground.

Bite (v. i.) To seize something forcibly with the teeth; to wound with the teeth; to have the habit of so doing; as, does the dog bite?

Bite (v. i.) To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which causes such a sensation; to be pungent; as, it bites like pepper or mustard.

Bite (v. i.) To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing.

Bite (v. i.) To take a bait into the mouth, as a fish does; hence, to take a tempting offer.

Bite (v. i.) To take or keep a firm hold; as, the anchor bites.

Bite (v.) The act of seizing with the teeth or mouth; the act of wounding or separating with the teeth or mouth; a seizure with the teeth or mouth, as of a bait; as, to give anything a hard bite.

Bite (v.) The act of puncturing or abrading with an organ for taking food, as is done by some insects.

Bite (v.) The wound made by biting; as, the pain of a dog's or snake's bite; the bite of a mosquito.

Bite (v.) A morsel; as much as is taken at once by biting.

Bite (v.) The hold which the short end of a lever has upon the thing to be lifted, or the hold which one part of a machine has upon another.

Bite (v.) A cheat; a trick; a fraud.

Bite (v.) A sharper; one who cheats.

Bite (v.) A blank on the edge or corner of a page, owing to a portion of the frisket, or something else, intervening between the type and paper.

Biter (n.) One who, or that which, bites; that which bites often, or is inclined to bite, as a dog or fish.

Biter (n.) One who cheats; a sharper.

Biternate (a.) Doubly ternate, as when a petiole has three ternate leaflets.

Bitheism (n.) Belief in the existence of two gods; dualism.

Biting (a.) That bites; sharp; cutting; sarcastic; caustic.

Biting in () The process of corroding or eating into metallic plates, by means of an acid. See Etch.

Bitingly (adv.) In a biting manner.

Bitless (a.) Not having a bit or bridle.

Bitstock (n.) A stock or handle for holding and rotating a bit; a brace.

Bitt (n.) See Bitts.

Bitt (v. t.) To put round the bitts; as, to bitt the cable, in order to fasten it or to slacken it gradually, which is called veering away.

Bittacle (n.) A binnacle.

Bitten () p. p. of Bite.

Bitten (a.) Terminating abruptly, as if bitten off; premorse.

Bitter (n.) AA turn of the cable which is round the bitts.

Bitter (v. t.) Having a peculiar, acrid, biting taste, like that of wormwood or an infusion of hops; as, a bitter medicine; bitter as aloes.

Bitter (v. t.) Causing pain or smart; piercing; painful; sharp; severe; as, a bitter cold day.

Bitter (v. t.) Causing, or fitted to cause, pain or distress to the mind; calamitous; poignant.

Bitter (v. t.) Characterized by sharpness, severity, or cruelty; harsh; stern; virulent; as, bitter reproach.

Bitter (v. t.) Mournful; sad; distressing; painful; pitiable.

Bitter (n.) Any substance that is bitter. See Bitters.

Bitter (v. t.) To make bitter.

Bitterbump (n.) the butterbump or bittern.

Bitterful (a.) Full of bitterness.

Bittering (n.) A bitter compound used in adulterating beer; bittern.

Bitterish (a.) Somewhat bitter.

Bitterling (n.) A roachlike European fish (Rhodima amarus).

Bitterly (adv.) In a bitter manner.

Bittern (n.) A wading bird of the genus Botaurus, allied to the herons, of various species.

Bittern (a.) The brine which remains in salt works after the salt is concreted, having a bitter taste from the chloride of magnesium which it contains.

Bittern (a.) A very bitter compound of quassia, cocculus Indicus, etc., used by fraudulent brewers in adulterating beer.

Bitterness (n.) The quality or state of being bitter, sharp, or acrid, in either a literal or figurative sense; implacableness; resentfulness; severity; keenness of reproach or sarcasm; deep distress, grief, or vexation of mind.

Bitterness (n.) A state of extreme impiety or enmity to God.

Bitterness (n.) Dangerous error, or schism, tending to draw persons to apostasy.

Bitternut (n.) The swamp hickory (Carya amara). Its thin-shelled nuts are bitter.

Bitterroot (n.) A plant (Lewisia rediviva) allied to the purslane, but with fleshy, farinaceous roots, growing in the mountains of Idaho, Montana, etc. It gives the name to the Bitter Root mountains and river. The Indians call both the plant and the river Spaet'lum.

Bitters (n. pl.) A liquor, generally spirituous in which a bitter herb, leaf, or root is steeped.

Bitter spar () A common name of dolomite; -- so called because it contains magnesia, the soluble salts of which are bitter. See Dolomite.

Bittersweet (a.) Sweet and then bitter or bitter and then sweet; esp. sweet with a bitter after taste; hence (Fig.), pleasant but painful.

Bittersweet (n.) Anything which is bittersweet.

Bittersweet (n.) A kind of apple so called.

Bittersweet (n.) A climbing shrub, with oval coral-red berries (Solanum dulcamara); woody nightshade. The whole plant is poisonous, and has a taste at first sweetish and then bitter. The branches are the officinal dulcamara.

Bittersweet (n.) An American woody climber (Celastrus scandens), whose yellow capsules open late in autumn, and disclose the red aril which covers the seeds; -- also called Roxbury waxwork.

Bitterweed (n.) A species of Ambrosia (A. artemisiaefolia); Roman worm wood.

Bitterwood (n.) A West Indian tree (Picraena excelsa) from the wood of which the bitter drug Jamaica quassia is obtained.

Bitterwort (n.) The yellow gentian (Gentiana lutea), which has a very bitter taste.

Bittock (n.) A small bit of anything, of indefinite size or quantity; a short distance.

Bittor Bittour (n.) The bittern.

Bitts (n. pl.) A frame of two strong timbers fixed perpendicularly in the fore part of a ship, on which to fasten the cables as the ship rides at anchor, or in warping. Other bitts are used for belaying (belaying bitts), for sustaining the windlass (carrick bitts, winch bitts, or windlass bitts), to hold the pawls of the windlass (pawl bitts) etc.

Bitume (n.) Bitumen.

Bitumed (a.) Smeared with bitumen.

Bitumen (n.) Mineral pitch; a black, tarry substance, burning with a bright flame; Jew's pitch. It occurs as an abundant natural product in many places, as on the shores of the Dead and Caspian Seas. It is used in cements, in the construction of pavements, etc. See Asphalt.

Bitumen (n.) By extension, any one of the natural hydrocarbons, including the hard, solid, brittle varieties called asphalt, the semisolid maltha and mineral tars, the oily petroleums, and even the light, volatile naphthas.

Bituminated (imp. & p. p.) of Bituminate

Bituminating (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Bituminate

Bituminate (v. t.) To treat or impregnate with bitumen; to cement with bitumen.

Bituminiferous (a.) Producing bitumen.

Bituminization (n.) The process of bituminizing.

Bituminized (imp. & p. p.) of Bituminize

Bituminizing (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Bituminize

Bituminize (v. t.) To prepare, treat, impregnate, or coat with bitumen.

Bituminous (a.) Having the qualities of bitumen; compounded with bitumen; containing bitumen.

Biuret (n.) A white, crystalline, nitrogenous substance, C2O2N3H5, formed by heating urea. It is intermediate between urea and cyanuric acid.

Bivalency (n.) The quality of being bivalent.

Bivalent (p. pr.) Equivalent in combining or displacing power to two atoms of hydrogen; dyad.

Bivalve (n.) A mollusk having a shell consisting of two lateral plates or valves joined together by an elastic ligament at the hinge, which is usually strengthened by prominences called teeth. The shell is closed by the contraction of two transverse muscles attached to the inner surface, as in the clam, -- or by one, as in the oyster. See Mollusca.

Bivalve (n.) A pericarp in which the seed case opens or splits into two parts or valves.

Bivalve (a.) Having two shells or valves which open and shut, as the oyster and certain seed vessels.

Bivalved (a.) Having two valves, as the oyster and some seed pods; bivalve.

Bivalvous (a.) Bivalvular.

Bivalvular (a.) Having two valves.

Bivaulted (a.) Having two vaults or arches.

Bivector (n.) A term made up of the two parts / + /1 /-1, where / and /1 are vectors.

Biventral (a.) Having two bellies or protuberances; as, a biventral, or digastric, muscle, or the biventral lobe of the cerebellum.

Bivial (a.) Of or relating to the bivium.

Bivious (a.) Having, or leading, two ways.

Bivium (n.) One side of an echinoderm, including a pair of ambulacra, in distinction from the opposite side (trivium), which includes three ambulacra.

Bivouac (n.) The watch of a whole army by night, when in danger of surprise or attack.

Bivouac (n.) An encampment for the night without tents or covering.

Bivouacked (imp. & p. p.) of Bivouac

Bivouacking (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Bivouac

Bivouac (v. i.) To watch at night or be on guard, as a whole army.

Bivouac (v. i.) To encamp for the night without tents or covering.

Biweekly (a.) Occurring or appearing once every two weeks; fortnightly.

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