Beejay asks:
I would appreciate it very much if you kindly tell me the meaning of "with bite" in the sentence "We are going to establish a tenure system with bite."
Good question! When we bite something (or someone!), we leave a mark and we get a reaction. The results are visible.
So when we establish a tenure system, or any other policy, "with bite," it has results. If you are a professor hoping to get tenure (a permanent job), and your university has a tenure system with bite, you must meet all the requirements of the system. If you don't, you won't get that permanent job.
I guess the expression comes from policies that sound impressive, but that don't have results if you ignore them. So they have no bite. Suppose you must hand in your students' grades by a certain date, or you will lose your job. You don't hand them in, and you keep your job. Your university's policies have no bite.
We use the word "bite" as a metaphor: an image that summarizes meaning. We use the same metaphor when we say: "We need a law with teeth in it." That is, if you break the law, you will feel unpleasant results.
The same metaphor is working when we say: "This is a toothless rule." If you break the rule, nothing bad will happen to you.
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