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bait

UK/beɪt/US/beɪt/
nounB12 meaningsCommon in everyday speech and writing · #2,482 of 15,258leans spoken

Other forms: baits, baiting, baited

Bait is the food put on a hook to attract a fish. Live bait, put bait on the hook, take the bait.

Taking the bait is the figurative use, meaning falling for a trap — and baiting somebody means provoking them deliberately. Clickbait promises more than the article gives. The word came from Old Norse and is related to bite, which is exactly what the bait is for.

A1AA1A · CC BY-SA 4.0

Definitions of bait

  1. 1nounbaitFood put on a hook to attract a fish.B1

    “He used bread as bait and waited for the fish to bite.”

  2. 2verbprovokeTo provoke somebody deliberately.B2

    “The boys baited the new student until he lost his temper.”

Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.

bait is a lure.

Where it comes from

Old Norse beita means food or bait, from a root meaning to bite. Bite and bit come from the same biting.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *bʰeyd-

  2. Middle English

    bayte

  3. English, today

    bait

From Middle English bayte. From Middle English bayte, bait, beite, from Old Norse beita (“food, bait”), from Proto-Germanic baitō (“that which is bitten, bait”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰeyd- (“to cleave, split, separate”). Cognate with German Beize (“mordant, corrosive fluid; marinade”), Old English bāt (“that which can be bitten, food, bait”). Related to bite.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Sea & Sailing

Practise this word

bait in the wild

  • Tackle attached to the end of a fishing line that gets cast out along with the bait are referred to as terminal tackle.

    Fishing tackle

  • Fishing bait is any luring substance used specifically to attract and catch fish, typically when angling with a hook and line.

    Fishing bait

  • Fishing baits can be grouped into two broad categories: natural baits and artificial baits.

    Fishing bait

  • The bait balls are short-lived and seldom last longer than 10 minutes.

    Bait ball

  • Before the Internet, a marketing practice known as bait-and-switch used similar dishonest methods to hook customers.

    Clickbait

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.