Word.ws English Dictionary

bite one's lip

bite one's lip verb: to forcibly prevent oneself from speaking, especially in order to avoid saying something inappropriate or likely to cause a dispute.

Verb

bite one's lip (third-person singular simple present bites one's lip, present participle biting one's lip, simple past bit one's lip, past participle bitten one's lip)

  1. (idiomatic) To forcibly prevent oneself from speaking, especially in order to avoid saying something inappropriate or likely to cause a dispute.
    • Buckingham bit his lip, for he saw the introduction of Lady Derby was likely to confuse and embroil every preparation which he had arranged for his defence; […]1822, [Walter Scott], chapter XIII, in Peveril of the Peak. […], volume IV, Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 304
    • He broke off and bit his lip, feeling that he had better subdue the rising anger in his voice.1922, F[rancis] Scott Fitzgerald, “(please specify the page)”, in Tales of the Jazz Age, New York, N.Y.: Charles Scribner’s Sons, →OCLC

Synonyms of bite one's lip

Forms of bite one's lip

third-person singular presentbites one's lip
present participlebiting one's lip
pastbit one's lip
past participlebitten one's lip

Questions about bite one's lip

What does bite one's lip mean?
Bite one's lip means to forcibly prevent oneself from speaking, especially in order to avoid saying something inappropriate or likely to cause a dispute.
What part of speech is bite one's lip?
Bite one's lip is a verb.
What is the past tense of bite one's lip?
The past tense of bite one's lip is bit one's lip.

Words near bite one's lip in the dictionary

  1. bite of the cherry
  2. bite of the reality sandwich
  3. bite off
  4. bite off more than one can chew
  5. bite on granite
  6. bite one's lip
  7. bite one's nails
  8. bite one's thumb
  9. bite one's tongue
  10. bite point
  11. bite points

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bite one's lip (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-bite one's lip.ogg.

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