Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions

(Amelia) #1
someone who copies someone else.
(From the first sense.) She’s wearing
the same coat as me! What a biter. 
That’s my steelo, you biter!

bitersn.teeth. (Streets.) You wanna get
socked in the biters? Jimmy got his biters
stuck in the candy!


bite the big onetv. to die. I was so tired
that I thought I was going to bite the big
one. I hope I am old and gray when I
bite the big one.


bite the bullettv. to accept something dif-
ficult and try to live with it. You are just
going to have to bite the bullet and make
the best of it. Jim bit the bullet and ac-
cepted what he knew had to be.


bite the dust 1. tv. to die. A shot rang
out, and another cowboy bit the dust. 
I’m too young to bite the dust. 2. tv. to
break; to fail; to give out. My car finally
bit the dust. This pen has bitten the
dust.


Bite the ice!exclam. Go to hell! If that’s
what you think, you can just bite the ice!
Get a life! Bite the ice!


Bite your tongue!exclam. Be sorry you
said that!; Take back what you said! Me
a thief? Oh, bite your tongue! Why do
you say that this will fail? Bite your tongue!


abit muchmod. more than enough; more
than good taste allows. That was a bit
much, Paul. After all, there is such a thing
as good taste. Your birthday card was a
bit much, but thank you just the same.


bit of the actionGo to piece (of the ac-
tion).


biz[bIz] 1. n. a business; business. What
biz you in? I’m in the plumbing biz. 2.
n. apparatus for injecting drugs. (Drugs.)
The biz is right there in the towel on
top of the stack. Use your own biz. I got
that disease, I think.


blab[blAb] 1. n. talk; chatter; meaningless
talk. I never pay any attention to blab
like that. Cut the blab and get to work.



  1. tv. to tell a secret; to reveal something
    private in public. I’ll tell you if you
    promise not to blab it. Tiffany blabbed
    the whole thing.


blabbermouth 1. n. someone who talks
too much and tells secrets. You are such
a blabbermouth! See if you can keep
your brother—who is a blabbermouth—to
keep this still. 2. tv. to tell secrets in pub-
lic. Don’t blabbermouth this to every-
body. Somebody blabbermouthed the
story all over town.

blackmod. without cream or milk. (Said of
coffee.) I’d like mine black, please. 
Black coffee, good and hot, please.

black and bluemod. bruised, physically or
emotionally. I’m still black and blue
from my divorce. What is that black and
blue area on your leg?

black and whiten. the police; a black and
white police patrol car; any police car. 
A black and white pulled up to the curb. 
Call the black and whites. We got trouble
here.

blackballtv. to vote against someone in a
secret ballot. Someone blackballed the
prospective member. I chose to blackball
her, and I’m not sorry.

black eyen. a moral blemish; an injury to
the prestige of someone or something. 
The library has gotten a black eye from this
incident. That kind of behavior can give
us all a black eye.

blacklist 1. n. a list of the names of banned
people; a list of people undesirable to
some group. Am I on your blacklist? 
I hear they keep a blacklist of all the peo-
ple they disagree with. 2. tv. to put some-
one’s name on a list of undesirables. 
They blacklisted me for not belonging to
the right organizations. Nobody else I
know was blacklisted.

blade 1. n. a knife. Bring your blade over
here and cut this loose. What are you
carrying a blade for? 2. n. a young man,
witty and worldly. One of those blades
kept winking at me. A couple of blades
from the international jet set ordered vin-
tage wine for everyone. 3. n. a homosex-
ual man. (From gay blade.) This blade
comes up and says, like, “Gotta match?” 
Some blade came over and offered to buy
me a drink.

biters

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