| bite | 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." (Shak) 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. 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." (Dickens) 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, 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. Origin: OE. Biten, AS. Bitan; akin to D. Bijten, OS. Bitan, OHG. Bizan, G. Beissen, Goth. Beitan, Icel. Bita, Sw. Bita, Dan. Bide, L. Findere to cleave, Skr. Bhid to cleave. Cf. Fissure. 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." (Prov. Xxiii. 32) 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. 1. 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. "I have known a very good fisher angle diligently four or six hours for a river carp, and not have a bite." (Walton) 2. The act of puncturing or abrading with an organ for taking food, as is done by some insects. 3. The wound made by biting; as, the pain of a dog's or snake's bite; the bite of a mosquito. 4. A morsel; as much as is taken at once by biting. 5. 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. 6. A cheat; a trick; a fraud. "The baser methods of getting money by fraud and bite, by deceiving and overreaching." (Humorist) 7. A sharper; one who cheats. 8. 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. Origin: OE. Bite, bit, bitt, AS. Bite bite, fr. Bitan to bite, akin to Icel. Bit, OS. Biti, G. Biss. See Bite, v, and cf. Bit. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| bite analysis | A study of the relations of the occlusal surfaces of opposing teeth and their effect upon related structures. Synonym: bite analysis. (05 Mar 2000) |
| bite force | The force applied by the masticatory muscles in dental occlusion. (12 Dec 1998) |
| bite fork | <dentistry> That part of the face-bow assemblage used to attach the maxillary trial base to the face-bow proper. Synonym: bite fork. (05 Mar 2000) |
| bite gauge | <instrument> A device for measuring biting pressure. Synonym: bite gauge, occlusometer. Origin: Gnatho-+ dynamometer (05 Mar 2000) |
| bite plane | <dentistry> A removable appliance made of acrylic designed to open a deep bite. See: occlusal plane. (06 Mar 2000) |
| bite rim | Occluding surfaces built on temporary or permanent denture bases for the purpose of making maxillomandibular relation records and for arranging teeth. Synonym: bite rim, occlusal rim, record rim. (05 Mar 2000) |
| bite stick | <dentistry> A device the orthodontist uses to help put on your bands. The orthodontist puts the band in place, then asks you to bite down on the bite stick to help push the band in place. (08 Jan 1998) |
| bitemporal | Relating to both temples or temporal bones. (05 Mar 2000) |
| bitemporal hemianopia | Blindness in the temporal field of vision of both eyes. (05 Mar 2000) |
| biteplate | A removable appliance that incorporates a plane of acrylic designed to occlude with the opposing teeth. (05 Mar 2000) |
| biter | 1. One who, or that which, bites; that which bites often, or is inclined to bite, as a dog or fish. "Great barkers are no biters." 2. One who cheats; a sharper. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| biternate | <botany> Doubly ternate, as when a petiole has three ternate leaflets. Biter"nately. Origin: Pref. Bi- + ternate. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| bites | Penetration of the skin (puncture or laceration) causing reactions that result from 1) mechanical injury; 2) injection of toxic material such as snake or scorpion venom; 3) injection of antigenic substance, especially by insect or arthropod bites, capable of inducing and eliciting allergic sensitization; 4) introduction of otherwise saprophytic flora such as Staphylococcus pyogenes in the instance of human bites; 5) invasion of the tissue as in myiasis; 6) transmission of disease such as typhus and rabies. Depending on the nature of the material propelled into the puncture of the skin and, in the case of antigenic material, on the previous exposure and immunity of the host, the local reaction will be immediate or delayed, accompanied by varying degrees of pain, itching and burning, and systemic manifestations specific for the offending agent. Origin: see bite (05 Mar 2000) |
| bites, human | Bites inflicted by humans. (12 Dec 1998) |
| balanced bite | The simultaneous contacting of the upper and lower teeth on the right and left and in the anterior and posterior occlusal areas in centric and eccentric positions within the functional range; used primarily in reference to the mouth, but also arranged and observed on articulators, developed to prevent a tipping or rotating of the denture bases in relation to the supporting structures. Synonym: balanced articulation, balanced bite. (05 Mar 2000) |
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| biscuit bite | A record of the relation of the mandible to the maxillae, the act of recording the relation of the mandible to the maxillae. Synonym: biscuit bite, maxillomandibular registration. (05 Mar 2000) |
| rat-bite disease | A syndrome characterised by recurring fever, rash, and arthralgias occurring days to weeks after a rat bite. The causative agents are either streptobacillus moniliformis or spirillum minus. (12 Dec 1998) |
| rat-bite fever | A syndrome characterised by recurring fever, rash, and arthralgias occurring days to weeks after a rat bite. The causative agents are either streptobacillus moniliformis or spirillum minus. (12 Dec 1998) |
| rattlesnake bite | A venomous (poisonous) snake bite. All rattlesnakes are venomous and secrete poisonous venom. (12 Dec 1998) |
| cat-bite disease | Rat-bite fever, presumably spread from rats to cats and thus to humans. Synonym: cat-bite fever. (05 Mar 2000) |
| cat-bite fever | Rat-bite fever, presumably spread from rats to cats and thus to humans. Synonym: cat-bite fever. (05 Mar 2000) |
| rest bite | A misnomer for physiologic rest position of the mandible. (05 Mar 2000) |
| close bite | A small distance between the maxillary and mandibular arches. Synonym: close bite. (05 Mar 2000) |
| closed bite | <dentistry> A malocclusion where your upper teeth cover your lower teeth when you bite down. This is also called a deep bite. (08 Jan 1998) |
| wax bite | <dentistry> A procedure to measure how well your teeth come together. You bite a sheet of wax and leave bitemark in the wax. The orthodontist looks at the bitemarks to see how well your teeth are aligned. (08 Jan 1998) |
| working bite | working contacts |
| South African tick-bite fever | A typhus-like fever of South Africa caused by Rickettsia rickettsii and usually characterised by primary eschar and regional adenitis, rigors, and maculopapular rash on the fifth day, often with severe central nervous system symptoms. (05 Mar 2000) |
| normal bite | That arrangement of teeth and their supporting structure which is usually found in health and which approaches an ideal or standard arrangement. Synonym: normal bite. Synonym: neutral occlusion. (05 Mar 2000) |
| deep bite | <dentistry> Excessive overbite, closed bite. (08 Jan 1998) |