Sentence:  His unsuccessful strivings to give up drink are represented as religious strivings ; he keeps a bottle in a wardrobe at home , and `` before this wardrobe Praisegod Piepsam had before now gone literally on his knees , and in his wrestlings had <WSD>bitten</WSD> his tongue - and still in the end capitulated '' . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  to grip, cut off, or tear with or as if with the teeth or jaws