bitten, ppl. a.
(ˈbɪt(ə)n)
[pa. pple. of bite v.]
1. Cut into, pierced, or wounded with the teeth.
| 1613 Shakes. Hen. VIII, v. iv. 64 Youths that..fight for bitten Apples. 1789 J. O'Donnel in Med. Commun. II. 299 His face on the bitten side was..swelled. |
2. fig. Infected, seized with a mania.
| 1847 L. Hunt Men, Women, & B. II. vii. 89 Readers not bitten with the love of verse. 1873 Morley Rousseau II. 186 Readers of the Social Contract, and..bitten by its dogmatic temper. |
3. Often combined with instrumental ns., as frost-bitten, hunger-bitten, vice-bitten (-bit), etc.
| 1599 H. C. in Greenham's Wks. To Rdr., The thirstie soule..Or hunger-bit. 1669 Worlidge Syst. Agric. (1681) 93 The leaves..before they are frost-bitten. 1754 Richardson Grandison VI. xxvii. 164 A man vice-bitten. |
† 4. actively. Having bitten, biting. (Used with qualifying adverb: cf. fair-spoken.) Obs. rare.
| 1616 Surfl. & Markh. Countr. Farm 674 They [Greyhounds] are of all dogs the sorest bitten and least amased with any crueltie in their enemie. |
5. In engraving, bitten-in: see bite v. 11 b.
| 1878 Abney Treat. Photogr. 183 The plate has to be..again heated to slightly melt the bitumen, so as to allow it to flow down the sides of the bitten-in lines. |
6. bitten-off: abruptly terminated (as if by the action of biting).
| 1829 T. Castle Introd. Bot. 20 The eroded or bitten-off appearance. 1937 V. Woolf Years 288 Baxter gave a queer little bitten-off smile. |