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:
Dating back to the 1920s, the property served as a rustic bait shop.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 24, 2026
Another is the existence of relatively new statutes that support growing schools of the Atlantic menhaden, an oily fish with a variety of industrial uses like commercial bait and omega-3 supplements.
From Barron's ● Aug. 18, 2026
One of them apparently hooked the fish, but the shark spat out the bait, according to Kohanchi’s account of events in the video.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 15, 2026
Usually, staff stage them as a tactical bait and switch: Once the block is cleared under the guise of safety, K9 units and search teams move in to tear through the empty cells.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
Anyhow, I’ll load on, fire up the outboard, go down creek to the harbor, fetch a bucket of bait from Dev Murphy, then off again to wherever I’m setting traps.
From "The Young Man and the Sea" by Rodman Philbrick
One of the curious facts about rats - and one begins to explain why poison baits often don't work - is that they cannot vomit.
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
“These baits are designed to be slow, because if they kill the ants super fast, there won’t be enough time to pass the toxicants or insecticide to the queen and the rest of the colony.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2024
Airdropped poison baits have been used to eradicate predators from uninhabited islands, but that is a problematic strategy if people live nearby.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 5, 2024
“May I get the sardines? I know where I can get four baits too.”
From "The Old Man and The Sea" by Ernest Hemingway
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
Newsom also baited Homan: “Come and get me, tough guy.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 9, 2025
Sammy and James took the few bony fish they had caught and baited the crab traps.
From "Homecoming" by Cynthia Voigt
Her Honor just needed to do more of the same: hail her own accomplishments, deliver well-timed zingers and keep as cool as a cucumber while baiting Raman into self-immolation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2026
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
There’s also some whining about Gilgeous-Alexander baiting foul calls from referees—initiating contact and then putting on a Juilliard-worthy death scene—but in this he’s hardly alone.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
Through a proprietary mixture of light nostalgia baiting and ever-present curiosity, Gellar has achieved a rare type of icon status — a superstar who owns her legacy, but isn’t willing to rest on her laurels.
From Salon ● Mar. 26, 2026
He was baiting Mrs. Tony Robbins as he always did when she came to the store.
From "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston
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.
