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bearbaiting

[bair-bey-ting]

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noun

the former practice of setting dogs to fight a captive bear.

Origin of bearbaiting

1250–1300; Middle English. See bear², bait(def 10), -ing¹

Related formsbear·bait·er, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for bear-baiting

Contemporary Examples of bear-baiting

It is also true that the New York Post practices the celebrity equivalent of bear-baiting.
Should MSNBC Fire Alec Baldwin and Martin Bashir?
Lloyd Grove
November 23, 2013

Historical Examples of bear-baiting

There were bull-baiting, bear-baiting, and football on Sunday.
The Greatest English Classic
Cleland Boyd McAfee
Bull-running and bull-baiting was an attraction only rivalled by bear-baiting.
Old Country Inns of England
Henry P. Maskell
Go not to kill men, as if you went to a cock-fight, or a bear-baiting.
A Christian Directory (Part 4 of 4)
Richard Baxter
The next year, again, they are all for Hockley-in-the-Hole and bear-baiting.
The Chaplain of the Fleet
Walter Besant and James Rice
Bear-baiting and bull-baiting were prohibited by act of parliament in 1835.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 3, Slice 4
Various

British Dictionary definitions for bear-baiting

bear-baiting

noun

(formerly) an entertainment in which dogs attacked and enraged a chained bear

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012