BAIT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Bait

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noun

Bait n.

Any substance, esp. food, used in catching fish, or other animals, by alluring them to a hook, snare, inclosure, or net.

Anything which allures; a lure; enticement; temptation.

A portion of food or drink, as a refreshment taken on a journey; also, a stop for rest and refreshment.

A light or hasty luncheon.

Bait bug (Zool.), a crustacean of the genus Hippa found burrowing in sandy beaches. See Anomura.

verb

Bait v. t. (past & past part. baited; pres. part. baiting)

To provoke and harass; esp., to harass or torment for sport; as, to bait a bear with dogs; to bait a bull.

To give a portion of food and drink to, upon the road; as, to bait horses.

To furnish or cover with bait, as a trap or hook. "A crooked pin... baited with a vile earthworm."

Bait v. i. To stop to take a portion of food and drink for refreshment of one's self or one's beasts, on a journey. "Evil news rides post, while good news baits." "My lord's coach conveyed me to Bury, and thence baiting at Newmarket."

Bait v. i. To flap the wings; to flutter as if to fly; or to hover, as a hawk when she stoops to her prey. "Kites that bait and beat."

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Etymology of 'Bait'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bait" Quotes from Famous Books

... excursions into the country, recommended by the waiter at his hotel, with whom, on this and similar points, he had established confidential relations. He watched the deer in Windsor Forest and admired the Thames from Richmond Hill; he ate white-bait and brown-bread and butter at Greenwich, and strolled in the grassy shadow of the cathedral of Canterbury. He also visited the Tower of London and Madame Tussaud's exhibition. One day he thought he ...

— The American • Henry James

... of the rural South, shiftless, half-educated, inefficient. He had never been able to earn much, and his family had always gently starved. Then had come the chance—the golden chance—the Philippines and a thousand a year. He had taken the bait, had come ten thousand miles to the spot of his maximum value. Only, things had not gone quite right. Thanks to the beautiful red-tape of the department, three months had gone before he had received his first month's pay. Then it had come in ...

— The Spinner's Book of Fiction • Various

... preferred to go out on the river to fish, for some fine black bass could be caught here. Dimple, however, preferred to stay behind with Mrs. Dallas and one or two of the other ladies, even though Mr. Atkinson said he would bait her hook for her, and would lend her his ...

— A Sweet Little Maid • Amy E. Blanchard

... miserable of men! I can't marry! I'm in an awful place! If I married you now I'd be a crook! It isn't a question of love in a cottage, with bread and cheese. If cottages were renting for a dollar a year I couldn't rent one for ten minutes. I haven't cheese enough to bait a mouse-trap. It's terrible! But ...

— The Lost Road • Richard Harding Davis

... about we could not ascertain, but next morning we found near the spot one of the bags usually carried by gins and containing the following samples of their daily food: three snakes; three rats; about 2 pounds of small fish, like white bait; crayfish; and a quantity of the small root of the cichoraceous plant tao, usually found growing on the plains with a bright yellow flower. There were also in the bag various bodkins and colouring stones, and two mogos or stone ...

— Three Expeditions into the Interior of Eastern Australia, Vol 2 (of 2) • Thomas Mitchell

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