bait
Americannoun
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food, or some substitute, used as a lure in fishing, trapping, etc.
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a poisoned lure used in exterminating pests.
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an allurement; enticement.
Employees were lured with the bait of annual bonuses.
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an object for pulling molten or liquefied material, as glass, from a vat or the like by adhesion.
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South Midland and Southern U.S.
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a large or sufficient quantity or amount.
He fetched a good bait of wood.
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an excessive quantity or amount.
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British Slang. food.
verb (used with object)
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baits,
present (3rd person singular)
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baited,
past participle, past
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baiting
present participle
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to prepare (a hook or trap) with bait.
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to entice by deception or trickery so as to entrap or destroy.
using fake signal lights to bait the ships onto the rocks.
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to attract, tempt, or captivate.
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to set dogs upon (an animal) for sport.
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to worry, torment, or persecute, especially with malicious remarks.
a nasty habit of baiting defenseless subordinates.
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to tease.
They love to bait him about his gaudy ties.
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to feed and water (a horse or other animal), especially during a journey.
noun
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something edible, such as soft bread paste, worms, or pieces of meat, fixed to a hook or in a trap to attract fish or animals
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an enticement; temptation
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a variant spelling of bate 4
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dialect food, esp a packed lunch
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archaic a short stop for refreshment during a journey
verb
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(tr) to put a piece of food on or in (a hook or trap)
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(tr) to persecute or tease
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(tr) to entice; tempt
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(tr) to set dogs upon (a bear, etc)
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archaic (tr) to feed (a horse), esp during a break in a journey
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archaic (intr) to stop for rest and refreshment during a journey
verb
Usage
The phrase with bated breath is sometimes wrongly spelled with baited breath
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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baiternoun
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overbaitverb (used with object)
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rebaitverb (used with object)
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unbaitverb (used with object)
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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baitsimple
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baitssimple
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have baitedperfect
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has baitedperfect
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am baitingprogressive
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are baitingprogressive
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is baitingprogressive
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have been baitingperfect progressive
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has been baitingperfect progressive
Past
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baitedsimple
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had baitedperfect
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was baitingprogressive
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were baitingprogressive
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had been baitingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bait
First recorded in 1150–1200; Middle English bait, beit (noun), baiten (verb), from Old Norse, probably reflecting both beita “to pasture, hunt, chase with dogs or hawks” (ultimately causative of bíta “to bite”) and beita “fish bait”; cf. bite, bate 3
Explanation
People who go fishing aren’t the only ones to use bait. When you hold a yard sale, place your best stuff closest to the sidewalk — to serve as bait. Bait can be anything from the worms that hide a hook to a stereo that tempts shoppers to stop and browse. Bait can also mean the act of getting someone or something to do what you want. For generations, students have baited their teachers into wasting class time with a question about a personal interest or obsession: “This talk about integers is very fascinating, Mr. Green, but what do you think about last night’s Penguins game?” Bait comes from the Old Norse, word beita — “to cause to bite.” Asking Mr. Green what other Viking words he knows might be interesting, and provide bait for his next off-topic musing.
Vocabulary lists containing bait
"Of Mice and Men"
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Messenger
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"Yet Do I Marvel" by Countee Cullen
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The men reportedly used pieces of fish as bait, placing traps outside houses where they knew cats were kept, state media reported.
From BBC ● Oct. 5, 2026
But after circling a few times, the shark spat out the bait, leaving fishermen on the pier stunned.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
The experiments used small groups of termites under controlled conditions, and the researchers described the findings as support for developing bistrifluron further as a localized treatment or possible bait ingredient.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026
Also known as grabblers or hand-fishermen, noodlers use their own bare limbs as bait to catch enormous flathead catfish lurking in Southern and Midwestern rivers, creeks, and lakes.
From Slate ● Sep. 17, 2026
"Everyone uses mussels for bait in Norway. And if we didn't catch any fish, we would boil the mussels in a saucepan and eat those."
From "The Witches" by Roald Dahl
"I ended up in sewers, trying to hang poison baits to kill rats."
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2025
And because "weird" can mean so many different things, it baits those who feel attacked into dumb definitional debates.
From Salon ● Aug. 2, 2024
The target predators often breed faster than they can be removed, catching the last few animals that avoid traps or baits is time-consuming and costly, and guarding against reinvasion is difficult, scientists say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2024
Control efforts, which focus on using poisonous baits, have proven ineffective, likely due to low bait uptake and bait abandonment.
From Science Daily ● May 23, 2024
It was useless to go on dramatizing her charms and talents for the benefit of these ridiculous knights—useless to go on hunting them with the tyrannous baits of what she thought was love.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
Do you think he can resist being baited?
From Slate ● Jul. 12, 2026
A baited camera mounted on a bottom lander captured rare footage of another goblin shark swimming freely in its natural environment.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 8, 2026
Of course, with the title at his fingertips, McIlroy baited the golfing gods on the final hole when he launched a drive into the trees and plunked his approach shot into a bunker.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 13, 2026
Despite noisemakers, baited traps and an entire month of waiting, a half-ton bear spent Christmas under an Altadena home.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 9, 2026
Winnie clutched her pole, sitting sidewise in the stern, and watched the baited hook sink slowly down.
From "Tuck Everlasting" by Natalie Babbit
A lawyer representing Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is calling for the destruction of all copies of an extremely limited-edition, Operation-style board game mocking SGA for ‘foul baiting.’
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026
“Shai has made hoops all about foul baiting and now you’re stuck guarding him in Underdog’s new board game,” a description reads on the game’s website.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 29, 2026
Smishing has become one of those quotidian irritations of modern life, and for some people, baiting the sender can feel like a tiny act of revenge—or just an opportunity for amusement.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
In an election shaped by identity, livelihoods and a fair amount of playful baiting, fish may not decide the result.
From BBC ● Apr. 20, 2026
Kind of surprising, isn’t it? 4TH JUROR: Yes. 3RD JUROR: Listen, that business before, you know, where that guy was baiting me.
From "Twelve Angry Men" by Reginald Rose
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
