Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Food or other lure placed on a hook or in a trap and used in the taking of fish, birds, or other animals.
- n. Something, such as a worm, used for this purpose.
- n. An enticement; a temptation.
- n. Archaic A stop for food or rest during a trip.
- v. To place a lure in (a trap) or on (a fishing hook).
- v. To entice, especially by trickery or strategy.
- v. To set dogs upon (a chained animal, for example) for sport.
- v. To attack or torment, especially with persistent insults, criticism, or ridicule.
- v. To tease.
- v. To feed (an animal), especially on a journey.
- v. Archaic To stop for food or rest during a trip.
- v. Variant of bate2.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- . To cause to bite; set on (a dog) to bite or worry (another animal).
- To provoke and harass by setting on dogs; set a dog or dogs to worry or fight with for sport, as an animal that is hampered or confined: as, to bait a bull or a bear.
- To set upon, as a dog upon a captive animal; hence, to harass in any way; annoy; nag; badger; worry.
- To feed; give a portion of food and drink to, especially upon a journey: as, to bait horses.
- To put a bait on or in: as, to bait a hook, line, snare, or trap.
- . To allure by a bait; catch; captivate: as, “to bait fish,”
- . To act in a worrying or harassing manner.
- To take food; feed.
- To stop at an inn, while on a journey, to feed the horses, or for rest and refreshment.
- n. Any substance, as an attractive morsel of food, placed on a hook or in a trap to allure fish or other animals to swallow the hook or to enter the trap, and thereby be caught; specifically, worms, small fishes, etc., used in fishing.
- n. An allurement; enticement; temptation.
- n. A portion of food and drink; a slight or informal repast. Refreshment taken on a journey, by man or beast.
- n. A luncheon; food eaten by a laborer during his shift.
- n. A halt for refreshment or rest in the course of a journey.
- n. A refreshment or refresher.
- n. A hasty meal; a snack.
- n. Short for whitebait.
- n. etc. An obsolete form of bate, etc.
Wiktionary
- n. Any substance, especially food, used in catching fish, or other animals, by alluring them to a hook, snare, trap, or net.
- n. Food containing poison or a harmful additive to kill animals that are pests.
- n. Anything which allures; a lure; enticement; temptation.
- n. A portion of food or drink, as a refreshment taken on a journey; also, a stop for rest and refreshment.
- n. A light or hasty luncheon.
- v. transitive To set dogs on (an animal etc.) to bite or worry; to attack with dogs, especially for sport.
- v. transitive To intentionally annoy, torment, or threaten by constant rebukes or threats; to harass.
- v. transitive To feed and water (a horse or other animal), especially during a journey.
- v. intransitive Of a horse or other animal: to take food, especially during a journey.
- v. transitive To attract with bait; to entice.
- v. transitive To affix bait to a fishing hook or fishing line.
- v. obsolete, intransitive To flap the wings; to flutter as if to fly; or to hover, as a hawk when she stoops to her prey.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. Any substance, esp. food, used in catching fish, or other animals, by alluring them to a hook, snare, inclosure, or net.
- n. Anything which allures; a lure; enticement; temptation.
- n. A portion of food or drink, as a refreshment taken on a journey; also, a stop for rest and refreshment.
- n. A light or hasty luncheon.
- v. To provoke and harass; esp., to harass or torment for sport.
- v. To give a portion of food and drink to, upon the road.
- v. To furnish or cover with bait, as a trap or hook.
- v. To stop to take a portion of food and drink for refreshment of one's self or one's beasts, on a journey.
- v. To flap the wings; to flutter as if to fly; or to hover, as a hawk when she stoops to her prey.
WordNet 3.0
- v. harass with persistent criticism or carping
- n. anything that serves as an enticement
- n. something used to lure fish or other animals into danger so they can be trapped or killed
- v. attack with dogs or set dogs upon
- v. lure, entice, or entrap with bait
Etymologies
- French battre de l'aile or des ailes, to flap or flutter. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Old Norse beita, food, fodder, fish bait. V., from Old Norse beita, to put animals to pasture, hunt with dogs; see bheid- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This bait is about two inches long, has wiggly legs, and also has two wiggly curled tails.”
“Grab the lure with your other hand and pull it back, loading the rod, until the bait is about even with your side.”
How to Use a Sling-Shot Cast to Fish Your Bait Beneath a Dock
“We'll show you what the cops are doing in what they call bait cars.”
“I, for one, think they have been perfectly justified in refusing to give up to the Americans the bait to carry on their Grand Bank fisheries because the control of the bait is a matter entirely within their legislative competence.”
“Anyone that thinks hunting over "bait" is easy, hasn't done it!”
“That's absurd, and frankly calling Sidarth "bait" is disgusting on its own.”
“Yes | No | Report from TheEasternShore ... wrote 48 weeks 3 days ago stink bait is pretty good”
“However the selling of bait is not, and if the bait is being sold there are hunters that are going to use it.”
“If I think there might be something fishy going on I take my thumb and index finger and pull the line back an inch or two so all the weight of the lure or bait is on my fingers.”
“Like you, I've gotten to the point where a senko or a fluke-type bait is my number one choice year-round, but particularly late winter-early spring.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bait’.
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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PECH - fishing technology
anchor, berth, drop anchor, anchored floating..., artificial restoc..., bait, beam trawls, bottom gillnets, entangling nets, bottom nets, bottom-set nets, bottom pair trawl and 478 more...
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bad memory
copper, anvil, oblique, thrust, shrine, welfare, farewell, bitter, faction, sectarian, tangible, spectacle and 134 more...
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In the Collieries
A collection of coal mining and colliery terms. Some British, some Scots, and some, Other. Many terms are quite to the point; others colorful and imaginative.
Also see Middlesmith's li...fire-damp, black-damp, choke-damp, skip, basket, gallery, Gregory lamp, pit, balance, balancer, tenter, coupler and 313 more...
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The Pain of Texting
Words that are a pain in the ass to type in on a numerical keypad on a cell phone because they have consecutive letters that share the same button:
2 - ABC
3 - DEF
4 - GHI...defcon, hi, no, attitude, xylophone, on, monday, monkey, mono, dig, back, babble and 212 more...
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Come right this way!
Words that draw us toward an object or destination.
lure, tempt, suck in, summon, seduce, pull, persuade, inveigle, fascinate, entrap, enchant, draw and 12 more...
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Homonyms That Are Antonyms
Got this idea from a Bizarro Cartoon. Let's find some others!
raise, raze, bate, bait, chilly, chile, complacent, complaisant, aweful, awful, reck, wreck and 8 more...
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strangelyrouge's Words
glockenspiel, gewgaw, jetsam, flotsam, gripe, grab, wench, whilst, betwixt, hither, thither, yonder and 1034 more...
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Words I have to learn
exasperate, felony, weld, fraud, worksheet, ransom, rehearse, preliminary, offshore, parole, infamous, sieve and 436 more...
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Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
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GRE
Taisha GRE Bible
archaic, archetype, archipelago, architect, archive, arctic, ardor, arduous, argot, arid, armory, arrest and 289 more...
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frequent toefl
Words that I do not know or unsure for toefl
appurtenances, aptitude, arbitrary, arboretum, argot, arrears, avocation, avuncular, badger, bait, warden, bane and 428 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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The DEADLIEST Catch
All the words I keep hearing now that Season 4 has launched. WOOOO!!
Edit: Amended list to include other fishing terms (not necessarily crab-fishing, not necessarily heard on Deadliest...bering sea, launch, pot, bait, icy, dutch harbor, processing, greenhorn, coast guard, survival suit, opilio, king crab and 65 more...
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R/W Masters List #2
The Dare
shard, gravel, array, guerrilla, enigma, dare, whiff, gaze, boxcar, embrace, silhouette, fury and 29 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bait.

myblankinfinity this is also London slang for 'obvious'
urban dictionary's definition:
" bait
when something is made blatantly obvious " Feb 23, 2013