To bite means to cut, grip, or pierce something with your teeth. When you bite into an apple, your teeth break through the skin and into the fruit's flesh. A dog might bite a stick to carry it, using its teeth to hold on tight.

The word carries different feelings depending on the context. A friendly bite happens when you take a bite of pizza or when a fish bites your hook while fishing. But bites can be dangerous too: a snake's venomous bite, a mosquito bite that leaves an itchy welt, or an angry dog's bite that breaks the skin.

Beyond the physical act, bite appears in several useful expressions. When someone says a comment has bite, they mean it's sharp and critical. If a cold wind has bite, it stings your face. When you bite off more than you can chew, you've taken on a task too difficult to handle. And when something bites the dust, it fails or breaks down completely.

A bite can also mean a small portion of food, like asking for just a bite of someone's sandwich. In fishing, when you feel a bite on your line, you know a fish is testing your bait.

The past tense is bit (“the dog bit my shoe”), and the past participle is bitten (“I've been bitten by mosquitoes”).