verbal subs. (old).—A deception; cheat; or hoax. Cf., CROSS-BITE, verb.
1576. WHETSTONE, Rocke of Regard, p. 50. CROSBITING, a kind of cousoning, under the couler of friendship. Ibid. The cheter will fume to see his CROSBITING and cunning shiftes decyphered.
1586. MARLOWE, The Jew of Malta, IV., v. Like one that is employed in catzerie [knavery] and CROSSBITING.
1610. ROWLANDS, Martin Mark-all, p. 53 [Hunterian Club’s Reprint, 1874]. He [Lawrence Crosbiter] first vsed that art which now is named CROSBITING, and from whose name this damned art (CROSBITING) tooke her first call, as if Laurence Crosbiter first inuented the same.
1839. W. H. AINSWORTH, Jack Sheppard, p. 126, ed. 1840. ‘The devil,’ ejaculated Jonathan. ‘Here’s a CROSS-BITE.’
