7. (familiar.)—A nickname for a Yorkshireman.—See Daily News, Sept. 11,
1883, and Yorkshire Post, Jan. 9, 1884.
1883. Daily News, Sept. 4, p. 5, col. 6. The great and puissant
race known indifferently as ‘tykes’ or bites.
8. (printers’.)—An irregular white spot on the edge or corner of a
printed page, caused by the frisket not being sufficiently cut out.
1677. Moxon, Mech. Exerc. in Savage Dict. Print, s.v. Bite. If the
frisket is not sufficiently cut away, but covers some part of the
form, so that it prints on the frisket, it is called a bite. [M.]
1884. Blades, Caxton, 130. In ‘Speculum Vitæ Christi’ we actually
find a bite, half of the bottom line remaining unprinted. [M.]
Verb (old).—1. To deceive; cheat; swindle; to ‘do’ or ‘take in.’ In
modern colloquial English to slick or to sell (q.v.). Formerly used
both transitively and passively; now only in latter.
1669. Nicker Nicked, in Hart. Misc. (ed. Park), ii., 109. Then a
rook ... follows him close, and engages him in advantageous bets,
and at length worries him, that is gets all his money, and then
they smile and say, ‘The lamb is bitten.’
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 12. Nay, he has bit you fairly enough,
that’s certain.
1724. A Journey through England. Many a poor German hath been bit
by an ordinary or his taylor, after this manner; they have suffered
the poor wretch to run in debt, made him an extravagant bill, and
then arrested him, and so forced him to pay their demands.
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.’