From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbite back phrasal verb1 SAY bite something ↔ back to stop yourself from saying or showing what you really think Tamar bit back the retort that sprang to her lips.2 REVENGEto react strongly and angrily to something at Determined to bite back at car thieves, he wired his car to an electric fence. → bite→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
bite back• But the apple is biting back.• Her teeth sank into her bottom lip, biting back a cry, and she winced.• Unfortunately, the very live bat bit back, and Osbourne underwent a painful series of precautionary rabies injections.• She bit back on her irritation.• And biting back ... the Whitesnake man plays it again.• But she bit back the words.• She had the insane desire to tell all that to this man, but she bit back the words. 