bite one's lip
"bite-one-s-lip" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“bite one's lip” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- Unranked
- below top-frequency English
- 14
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To forcibly prevent oneself from speaking, especially in order to avoid saying something inappropriate or likely to cause a dispute.
Corpus desk
Index EN-bite-one-s-lip · bite one's lip · English
bite one's lip · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
- LEN-MEGA 14 letters
- VOW-5 5 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-THIN "B" thin
- PHOTO-UNK Peer pending
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | bite one's lip |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| Letters | 14 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “bite one's lip” in English
Rare enough to double-check
bite one's lip is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To forcibly prevent oneself from speaking, especially in order to avoid saying something inappropriate or likely to cause a dispute.".
bite one's lip doesn't appear in our generated misspelling index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct English form is bite one's lip, spelled B-I-T-E- -O-N-E-'-S- -L-I-P.
Definition
- 1To forcibly prevent oneself from speaking, especially in order to avoid saying something inappropriate or likely to cause a dispute.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how bite one's lip appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
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; […]
He broke off and bit his lip, feeling that he had better subdue the rising anger in his voice.
Synonyms
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.