whitebait

[hwahyt-beyt, wahyt-]

noun, plural white·bait.

a young sprat or herring.

Cookery. any small, delicate fish cooked whole without being cleaned, especially the sprat.

Nearby words

Origin of whitebait

1750–60; white + bait, so called from use as bait

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

Examples from the Web for whitebait

People visited Brighton solely to eat them, as they now go to Greenwich for whitebait and to Colchester for oysters.
Highways & Byways in Sussex|E.V. Lucas
Wash the whitebait and dry, then put in bowl, season with salt and pepper, and cover with milk.
The Hotel St. Francis Cook Book|Victor Hirtzler
At Greenwich an annual banquet of cabinet ministers, known as the whitebait dinner, formerly took place.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 5|Various
Whitebait are no longer kept in the Round Pond at Kensington.
Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 8, 1893|Various

Here the ministry at the close of the session has its annual whitebait dinner.
England, Picturesque and Descriptive|Joel Cook

British Dictionary definitions for whitebait

whitebait

noun

the young of herrings, sprats, etc, cooked and eaten whole as a delicacy

any of various small silvery fishes, such as Galaxias attenuatus of Australia and New Zealand and Allosmerus elongatus of North American coastal regions of the Pacific

Word Origin for whitebait

C18: from its formerly having been used as bait

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