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Bite vs Mite - What's the difference?

bite | mite |

As nouns the difference between bite and mite

is that bite is the act of biting while mite is a minute arachnid, of the order Acarina, of which there are many species; as, the cheese mite, sugar mite, harvest mite, etc. See Acarina.

As a verb bite

is to cut off a piece by clamping the teeth.

bite

English

Verb

  • To cut off a piece by clamping the teeth.
  • As soon as you bite that sandwich, you'll know how good it is.
  • To hold something by clamping one's teeth.
  • To attack with the teeth.
  • That dog is about to bite !
  • To behave aggressively; to reject advances.
  • If you see me, come and say hello. I don't bite .
  • To take hold; to establish firm contact with.
  • I needed snow chains to make the tires bite .
  • To have significant effect, often negative.
  • For homeowners with adjustable rate mortgages, rising interest will really bite .
  • (of a fish) To bite a baited hook or other lure and thus be caught.
  • Are the fish biting today?
  • (metaphor) To accept something offered, often secretly or deceptively, to cause some action by the acceptor.
  • I've planted the story. Do you think they'll bite ?
  • (intransitive, transitive, of an insect) To sting.
  • These mosquitoes are really biting today!
  • To cause a smarting sensation; to have a property which causes such a sensation; to be pungent.
  • It bites like pepper or mustard.
  • To cause sharp pain, or smarting, to; to hurt or injure, in a literal or a figurative sense.
  • Pepper bites the mouth.
  • * Shakespeare
  • Frosts do bite the meads.
  • To cause sharp pain; to produce anguish; to hurt or injure; to have the property of so doing.
  • * Bible, Proverbs xxiii. 32
  • At the last it [wine] biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
  • To take or keep a firm hold.
  • The anchor bites .
  • To take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to.
  • The anchor bites the ground.
  • * Charles Dickens
  • The last screw of the rack having been turned so often that its purchase crumbled, it turned and turned with nothing to bite .
  • (slang) To lack quality; to be worthy of derision; to suck.
  • This music really bites .
  • (transitive, informal, vulgar) To perform oral sex on. (Used in invective).
  • You don't like that I sat on your car? Bite me.
  • (intransitive, AAVE, slang) To plagiarize, to imitate.
  • He always be biting my moves.

    Derived terms

    * bite back * bite in the ass * bite me * bite off * bite off more than one can chew * bite one's knuckle * bite one's tongue * biter * bite someone's head off * bite the big one * bite the bullet * bite the dust * bite the hand that feeds one * biting

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of .
  • * Walton
  • I have known a very good fisher angle diligently four or six hours for a river carp, and not have a bite .
  • The wound left behind after having been bitten.
  • That snake bite really hurts!
  • The swelling of one's skin caused by an insect's mouthparts or sting.
  • After just one night in the jungle I was covered with mosquito bites .
  • A piece of food of a size that would be produced by ; a mouthful.
  • There were only a few bites left on the plate.
  • (slang) Something unpleasant.
  • That's really a bite !
  • (slang) An act of plagiarism.
  • That song is a bite of my song!
  • A small meal or snack.
  • I'll have a quick bite to quiet my stomach until dinner.
  • (figuratively) aggression
  • * {{quote-news, year=2011
  • , date=March 2 , author=Saj Chowdhury , title=Man City 3 - 0 Aston Villa , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=City scored the goals but periods of ball possession were shared - the difference being Villa lacked bite in the opposition final third.}}
  • 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.
  • (colloquial, dated) A cheat; a trick; a fraud.
  • * Humorist
  • The baser methods of getting money by fraud and bite , by deceiving and overreaching.
  • (colloquial, dated, slang) A sharper; one who cheats.
  • (Johnson)
  • (printing) 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.
  • (Webster 1913)

    Synonyms

    * (act of biting) * (wound left behind after having been bitten) * (sense, swelling caused by an insect's mouthparts or sting) sting * (piece of food of a size that would be produced by biting) mouthful * * * (small meal or snack) snack *

    Derived terms

    * bitemark * bite-sized * bite stick * crossbite * in one bite * overbite * snake-bite, snakebite * underbite

    mite

    English

    (wikipedia mite)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A minute arachnid, of the order Acarina, of which there are many species; as, the cheese mite, sugar mite, harvest mite, etc. See Acarina.
  • A small coin formerly circulated in England, rated at about a third of a farthing.
  • *1803 , William Blake,
  • *:One mite wrung from the lab'rer's hands
  • *:Shall buy and sell the miser's lands;
  • A lepton, a small coin used in Palestine in the time of Christ.
  • A small weight; one twentieth of a grain.
  • Anything very small; a minute object; a very little quantity or particle. Sometimes used adverbially.
  • * , chapter=5
  • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients , passage=“Well,” I says, “I cal'late a body could get used to Tophet if he stayed there long enough.” ¶ She flared up; the least mite of a slam at Doctor Wool was enough to set her going.}}
  • * 1959 , Frances Cavanah, Abe Lincoln Gets His Chance , Project Gutenberg, [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17315/17315-8.txt]:
  • "Those trousers are a mite too big, but you'll soon grow into them."

    Synonyms

    * (small amount) see also .

    Derived terms

    * widow's mite

    Anagrams

    * * * ----