1731. Fielding, The Lottery, Sc. 3. However, Madam, you are bit as well as I am; for I am no more a lord, than you are a fortune.
1822. [Nares] Love in a Barn, an old ballad. He shall not have my maiden-head, I solemnly do swear; But I'll bite him of a portion, Then marry with Ralph, my dear.
1838. Thackeray, Yellowplush Memoirs, ch. x. 'You were completely bitten, my boy—humbugged, bamboozled—ay, and by your old father, you dog.'
1853. Thackeray, Barry Lyndon, ch. xvii., p. 232. I have no particular pleasure in recalling my Newmarket doings. I was infernally bit and bubbled in almost every one of my transactions there.
Hence 2. (popular.)—To strike a hard bargain.
3. (old.)—To steal; e.g., 'to bite the roger,' to steal a portmanteau; 'to bite the wiper,' i.e., to purloin a handkerchief.
Intj. (old.)—1. Formerly an equivalent to the modern 'Sold!' 'Done!' etc.
1704. Cibber, Careless Husband, Act iii.
Ld. Mo. 'Tis possible I may not have the same regard to her frown that your Lordship has.
Ld. Fop. That's bite, I'm sure; he'd give a joint of his little finger to be as well with her as I am.
1738. Swift, Polite Conversation (conv. i.).
Miss. I'm sure the gallows groans for you.
Nev. Bite, Miss; I was but in jest.
1714. Addison, Spectator, No. 514. It is a superstition with some surgeons who beg the bodies of condemned malefactors, to go to the gaol and bargain for the carcass with the criminal himself. . . . The fellow who killed the officer of Newgate, very forwardly, and like a man who was willing to deal, told him, 'Look you, Mr. Surgeon, that little dry fellow, who has been half starved all his life, is now half dead with fear, cannot answer your purpose. . . . Come, for twenty shillings I am your man.' Says the Surgeon, 'Done, there's a guinea.' This witty rogue took the money, and as soon as he had it in his fist, cries, 'bite, I am to be hanged in chains'
2. (Charterhouse.)—A warning = Cave!
To do a thing when the maggot bites, phr. (common), is to do it when the fancy takes one; 'at one's own sweet will.' When a person acts from no apparent motive in external circumstances, he is said to have 'a maggot in his head,' to have 'a bee in his bonnet'; or, in French, avoir des rats dans la tête; in Platt-Deutsch, to have a mouse-nest in his head, the eccentric behaviour being attributed to the influence of the internal irritation. Cf., Apartments to let.
Bite One's Hips, verbal phr. (tailors').—To regret a word or action.
Bite One's Name In, verbal phr. (common).—To drink heavily; to tipple; also to drink greedily.
Bite on the Bridle, verbal phr.(old).—To be pinched in circumstances; to be reduced; in difficulties.
Biter, subs. (old).—1. A practical joker; a hoaxer; one who deceives; a cheat and trickster. Cf., Bite. The term now only survives in the proverbial expression, 'the biter bit.' For synonyms, see Rook.
1669. Nicker Nicked, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 108. [Biter is given in a list of names of cheats and thieves'.]
1680. Cotton, Complete Gamester, in Singer's Hist. Playing Cards (1816), p. 333. Hectors, setters, gilts, pads, biters, etc., and these may all pass under the general appellation of rooks.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 12. A biter, who is a dull fellow, that tells
