Meaning of I'll bite | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Indicating that one doubts that a question is being asked in seriousness or good faith, but is willing to respond in earnest.
   colloquial
2. Indicating that one is willing to engage with a potentially difficult or inconvenient situation.
   colloquial
3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see I'll, bite.

Examples

“—Why did the chicken cross the road? —OK, I'll bite. Why did it cross the road?”

“Are there security concerns we haven't thought of? What if someone, I don't know, puts a bomb someplace, hops on a plane and detonates it remotely? ¶ Sounds like you've been watching a few too many action movies. Okay, I'll bite.”

“Who is trying to nab Tommy? What is his mom's power?! ¶ All right, fine. I'll bite.”

“OK, I'll bite: political correctness may not be perfect, but isn't its aim to empower and protect? "It's taken too far, though. Death by committee, trying to slam your dictates into another person's face. That's not healthy."”

“This isn't usually my type of movie, but I'll bite.”

“To the Editor of The New York Times: Referring to your "Topics of The Times" leading off with "Science in the Saddle," I can only believe such an article was printed for the sole purpose of drawing fire. I'll bite and I hope others more competent than I am have deluged you with rebuttals of absurd statements made therein.”

“Designers made their games really hard because their games were really short, and they had to encourage you to play them over and over. […] But okay. I'll bite. Let's try a game with NES-era difficulty. So I go back into the Amazon. This time I'm a lot better.”

“As a recovery advocate and blogger, I get a lot of requests from authors who want me to read and write about their books. Most of the time, I decline. But every once in a while, if the book seems interesting enough, I'll bite. This is one of those times I'm glad I did.”

“"Please RT if you want to help make Ohio teen @weezerafrica's simple, wholesome dream come true of seeing rock band @Weezer cover Africa by Toto," he tweeted. Luke is an occasional Noisey writer, and is very adept at wandering into the dark rooms of the internet and causing trouble in them. So my interest was piqued. "OK, I'll bite," I thought, and gave Luke's tweet the one true currency left in our capitalist hell world: my Click.”

“I suspect fruity language is lavishly used on building sites and in 10 Downing Street, but not so much in middle-ranking jobs. Iain Duncan Smith once told a Treasury mandarin on the phone "If you ever speak to my officials like that again I'll bite your balls off and send them to you in a box."”

CEFR level