Word.ws English Dictionary

champ at the bit

champ at the bit verb: to bite the bit, especially when restless.

Verb

champ at the bit (third-person singular simple present champs at the bit, present participle champing at the bit, simple past and past participle champed at the bit)

  1. (intransitive) To bite the bit, especially when restless.
  2. (figuratively, intransitive) To show impatience or frustration when delayed.
    • Pittsburgh supercomputer is complete, and scientists are champing at the bit to use it [title]2001 October 1, Byron Spice, “Pittsburgh supercomputer is complete, and scientists are champing at the bit to use it”, in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, archived from the original on 27 Jan 2006
    • Everyone is champing at the bit to be labelled innovative.2006 May 14, “Ideas with wings, a radio series supporting innovation”, in Australian Broadcasting Corporation, archived from the original on 05 Feb 2010

Synonyms of champ at the bit

Forms of champ at the bit

third-person singular presentchamps at the bit
present participlechamping at the bit
past participlechamped at the bit
pastchamped at the bit

Origin of champ at the bit

From champ (verb) (“to chew noisily”) + bit (“part of horse's harness held in its mouth”); horses tend to chew their bits when impatient with waiting.

Questions about champ at the bit

What does champ at the bit mean?
Champ at the bit means to bite the bit, especially when restless.
What part of speech is champ at the bit?
Champ at the bit is a verb.
What is the past tense of champ at the bit?
The past tense of champ at the bit is champed at the bit.

Words near champ at the bit in the dictionary

  1. Chamovnicheskian
  2. chamoy
  3. chamoyada
  4. chamoyadas
  5. champ
  6. champ at the bit
  7. champ clos
  8. champ down on
  9. champ up
  10. Champa
  11. Champa Nagri

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: champ at the bit (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-champ at the bit.ogg.

Cite this entry: “champ at the bit.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/champ_at_the_bit. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.