Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Causing a stinging sensation; nipping.
  • adjective Injuring or capable of injuring the feelings; caustic.
  • adjective Of or relating to insects and certain other animals that wound the skin with a sting, mouthparts, or fangs.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Nipping; keen: as, biting cold; biting weather.
  • Severe; sharp; bitter; painful: as, a “biting affliction,”
  • Acrid; hot; pungent: as, a biting taste.
  • Hence Sharp; severe; cutting; sarcastic: as, a biting remark.
  • noun The action of cutting, piercing, etc., in any sense of bite.
  • noun The corroding action of a mordant upon a metal plate, wherever the lines of a design, drawn upon a prepared ground, have been laid bare with a needle, as in etching, or the surface is alternately stopped out and exposed, as in aquatint.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective That bites; sharp; cutting; sarcastic; caustic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Present participle of bite.
  • noun The action of the verb to bite.
  • noun An occurrence of a bite.
  • adjective Causing a stinging sensation.
  • adjective Cutting or incisive.
  • adjective Tending to bite.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective causing a sharply painful or stinging sensation; used especially of cold
  • adjective capable of wounding

Etymologies

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