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Bite vs Snap - What's the difference?

bite | snap |

In transitive terms the difference between bite and snap

is that bite is to take hold of; to hold fast; to adhere to while snap is to take a photograph; to release a camera's shutter (which may make a snapping sound).

In intransitive terms the difference between bite and snap

is that bite is to take or keep a firm hold while snap is to fit or fasten together with a snapping sound.

As an interjection snap is

the winning cry at a game of snap.

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

    snap

    English

    (wikipedia snap)

    Noun

  • A quick breaking or cracking sound or the action of producing such a sound.
  • A sudden break.
  • An attempt to seize, bite, attack, or grab.
  • The act of making a snapping sound by pressing the thumb and a opposing finger of the same hand together and suddenly releasing the grip so that the finger hits against the palm.
  • A fastening device that makes a snapping sound when used.
  • A photograph (an abbreviation of snapshot)
  • The sudden release of something held under pressure or tension.
  • A thin circular cookie or similar good:
  • a ginger snap
  • A brief, sudden period of a certain weather;
  • A very short period of time (figuratively, the time taken to snap one's fingers), or a task that can be accomplished in such a period.
  • It'll be a snap to get that finished.
    I can fix most vacuum cleaners in a snap .
  • A snap bean such as Phaseolus vulgaris .
  • (American football) The passing of a football from the center to a back that begins play, a hike.
  • A rivet: a scrapbooking embellishment.
  • (UK, regional) A small meal, a snack; lunch.
  • * 1913 , , Penguin 2006, page 89:
  • When I went to put my coat on at snap time, what should go runnin' up my arm but a mouse.
  • (uncountable) A card game, primarily for children, in which players cry "snap" to claim pairs of matching cards.
  • (obsolete) A greedy fellow.
  • (rfquotek, L'Estrange)
  • That which is, or may be, snapped up; something bitten off, seized, or obtained by a single quick movement; hence, a bite, morsel, or fragment; a scrap.
  • * Ben Jonson
  • He's a nimble fellow, / And alike skilled in every liberal science, / As having certain snaps of all.
  • briskness; vigour; energy; decision
  • (slang, archaic) Any circumstance out of which money may be made or an advantage gained.
  • A snapper, or snap beetle.
  • (Webster 1913)

    Derived terms

    * snappy

    See also

    *

    Verb

  • (transitive) To fracture or break apart suddenly.
  • He snapped his stick in anger.
    If you bend it too much, it will snap .
  • * Burke
  • But this weapon will snap short, unfaithful to the hand that employs it.
  • To give forth or produce a sharp cracking noise; to crack.
  • Blazing firewood snaps .
  • To attempt to seize with the teeth or bite.
  • A dog snaps''' at a passenger. A fish '''snaps at the bait.
  • To attempt to seize with eagerness.
  • She snapped at the chance to appear on television.
  • To speak abruptly or sharply.
  • He snapped at me for the slightest mistake.
  • To give way abruptly and loudly.
  • To suffer a mental breakdown, usually while under tension.
  • She should take a break before she snaps .
  • To flash or appear to flash as with light.
  • To fit or fasten together with a snapping sound.
  • (intransitive, computing, graphical user interface) To jump to a fixed position relative to another element.
  • The floating toolbar will snap to the edge of the screen when dragged towards it.
  • To snatch with or as if with the teeth.
  • * South
  • He, by playing too often at the mouth of death, has been snapped by it at last.
  • To pull apart with a snapping sound; to pop loose.
  • To say abruptly or sharply.
  • (dated) To speak to abruptly or sharply; to treat snappishly; usually with up .
  • (Granville)
  • To cause something to emit a snapping sound.
  • to snap a fastener
    to snap a whip
  • To close something using a snap as a fastener.
  • To snap one's fingers: to make a snapping sound, often by pressing the thumb and an opposing finger of the same hand together and suddenly releasing the grip so that the finger hits against the palm; alternatively, by bringing the index finger quickly down onto the middle finger and thumb.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
  • MacMorian snapped his fingers repeatedly.
  • To cause to move suddenly and smartly.
  • To take a photograph; to release a camera's shutter (which may make a snapping sound).
  • He snapped a picture of me with my mouth open and my eyes closed.
  • (American football) To pass the ball from the center to a back; to hike the ball.
  • He can snap the ball to a back twenty yards behind him.
  • To misfire.
  • The gun snapped .

    Derived terms

    * snap at someone's heels * snap it up * snap one's fingers * snap someone's head off * snap up * unsnap

    Interjection

    (en-interj)!
  • The winning cry at a game of .
  • (British) By extension from the card game, "I've got one the same." or similar
  • Snap! We've both got pink buckets and spades.
  • (British) Ritual utterance of agreement (after the cry in the card game snap).
  • (US) Used in place of expletive to express surprise, usually in response to a negative statement or news; often used facetiously.
  • "I just ran over your phone with my car." "Oh, snap !"
  • (British, Australia, NZ) Ritual utterance used after something is said by two people at exactly the same time.
  • "Wasn't that John?" "Wasn't that John?" "Snap !"

    Synonyms

    * (used after simultaneous utterance) jinx