Word: biting point Part of Speech: noun 1. The point where the clutch engages when the pedal is released. Example: Tight clutch control is needed, so keep the clutch pedal just above the biting point. Example: To stop rolling backward on a hill, he instructed, depress both the clutch and brake pedals, put the car into gear, release the hand brake, and then lift the foot off the clutch until the biting point is found. 2. The precise position at which a control mechanism as been moved just enough to cause a device to operate. Labels: broadly Example: The slipping set screw is a source of much trouble when due to lack of proper biting point. Example: The 'biting point' needs to be found when the keys are depressed past the point of escapement, a characteristic that varies widely in distance and reliability across different pianos. 3. The point or set of circumstances when a particular action can begin or a critical transition can occur. Labels: figuratively Example: And here is the biting point: If you understand clearly “what” God has been doing in your life to date and “where” He has been leading your feet (and I don't mean physical feet) to date, you will be in the most critical position to […] Example: Once, twice, three times she tried – but there was no biting point. There was only a vague, achy sense of evasion as her retinas strained to accomplish her mind's desire, and failed. 4. The level of aggravation that causes someone or something to lash out or bite. Example: Sometimes the Princess would appear with the lead and take one of the others out, often Maisie, and I would hate whoever had gone in my place, filled to biting-point with envy that built up and built up in the long wait imagining someone else's pleasure. Example: Unless they are attacked or unless they are intercepted in their progress towards their hole they apparently prefer to make away from, rather than to attack, man or animals; and it may be assumed that the quiet movements of grazing animals do not excite them to the biting point. 5. The position of the jaw where the upper and lower teeth meet during a bite Example: The use of the resultant biting-point can be incorporated with any technique of building complete dentures. Example: The muscle combinations that must be active to generate the biting force differ depending on the size of the fish, size of the prey, position of the biting point and direction of the biting force. 6. The location where something is bitten. Example: After a few generations of such treatment it is noticed that in the puppies' tails there is indicated the exact spot at which they should be bitten off. The cartilage in the tail is merely rudimentary beyond the biting point. Example: There is a sudden sharp pain. It's biting me. I try to scream but my throat merely coughs up bile. I struggle to keep it down. Then a wave of warmth spreads out from the biting point. Up my arm and into the rest of me. 7. The point of a blade or similar item where it begins to bite or penetrate. Example: Jeremiah jumped aside and just cleared the biting point. Example: Files of legionaries from the outsides of each cohort raced to its middle, gradually building up, evenly, so that protrusions of men appeared, lessening until at the tip there was the primus pilus of the cohort, acting as the biting point of the wedge.