"bite back" meaning in English

See bite back in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Forms: bites back [present, singular, third-person], biting back [participle, present], bit back [past], bitten back [participle, past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*|*|bit back|bitten back}} bite back (third-person singular simple present bites back, present participle biting back, simple past bit back, past participle bitten back)
  1. (intransitive) To retaliate; to give a sharp retort. Tags: intransitive
    Sense id: en-bite_back-en-verb-lsZ~XCMx Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "back", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 93 7 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "back": 87 13 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 91 9 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 93 7
  2. (transitive) To repress (an emotion or a response). Tags: transitive
    Sense id: en-bite_back-en-verb-f8dZSNy6

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bites back",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "biting back",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bit back",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bitten back",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "2": "*",
        "3": "bit back",
        "4": "bitten back"
      },
      "expansion": "bite back (third-person singular simple present bites back, present participle biting back, simple past bit back, past participle bitten back)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "93 7",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "87 13",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"back\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "91 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "93 7",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To retaliate; to give a sharp retort."
      ],
      "id": "en-bite_back-en-verb-lsZ~XCMx",
      "links": [
        [
          "retaliate",
          "retaliate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To retaliate; to give a sharp retort."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              3,
              11
            ]
          ],
          "text": "He bit back his anger and managed a courteous reply.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              7,
              17
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1971, The Who, “Behind Blue Eyes”, in Who's Next:",
          "text": "No one bites back as hard on their anger / None of my pain and woe / Can show through",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To repress (an emotion or a response)."
      ],
      "id": "en-bite_back-en-verb-f8dZSNy6",
      "links": [
        [
          "repress",
          "repress"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To repress (an emotion or a response)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "bite back"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs formed with \"back\"",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "bites back",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "biting back",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bit back",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "bitten back",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*",
        "2": "*",
        "3": "bit back",
        "4": "bitten back"
      },
      "expansion": "bite back (third-person singular simple present bites back, present participle biting back, simple past bit back, past participle bitten back)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To retaliate; to give a sharp retort."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "retaliate",
          "retaliate"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To retaliate; to give a sharp retort."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              3,
              11
            ]
          ],
          "text": "He bit back his anger and managed a courteous reply.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              7,
              17
            ]
          ],
          "ref": "1971, The Who, “Behind Blue Eyes”, in Who's Next:",
          "text": "No one bites back as hard on their anger / None of my pain and woe / Can show through",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To repress (an emotion or a response)."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "repress",
          "repress"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To repress (an emotion or a response)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "bite back"
}

Download raw JSONL data for bite back meaning in English (1.7kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-13 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (aeaf2a1 and fb63907). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.