whitebait

[ hwahyt-beyt, wahyt- ]
/ ˈʰwaɪtˌbeɪt, ˈwaɪt- /

noun, plural white·bait.

a young sprat or herring.
Cooking. any small, delicate fish cooked whole without being cleaned, especially the sprat.

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a cylindrical wooden container with slightly bulging sides.
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Origin of whitebait

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

Words nearby whitebait

white area, white as a sheet, white ash, White Australia policy, white bacon, whitebait, white bass, whitebeam, white bear, whitebeard, White Bear Lake
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2020

Example sentences from the Web for whitebait

British Dictionary definitions for whitebait

whitebait
/ (ˈwaɪtˌbeɪt) /

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