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 (Etching), 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?" Shak. -- To bite the tongue, to keep silence. Shak.
Bite (&?;), v. i. 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.