| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000. |
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| bait1 |
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| PRONUNCIATION: |  b t |
| NOUN: | 1a. Food or other lure placed on a hook or in a trap and used in the taking of fish, birds, or other animals. b. Something, such as a worm, used for this purpose. 2. An enticement; a temptation. 3. Archaic A stop for food or rest during a trip. | | VERB: | Inflected forms: bait·ed, bait·ing, baits
| | TRANSITIVE VERB: | 1. To place a lure in (a trap) or on (a fishing hook). 2. To entice, especially by trickery or strategy. 3. To set dogs upon (a chained animal, for example) for sport. 4. To attack or torment, especially with persistent insults, criticism, or ridicule. 5. To tease. 6. To feed (an animal), especially on a journey. | | INTRANSITIVE VERB: | Archaic To stop for food or rest during a trip. | | ETYMOLOGY: | 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 Appendix I. | | OTHER FORMS: | bait er —NOUN
| | USAGE NOTE: | The word baited is sometimes incorrectly substituted for the etymologically correct but unfamiliar word bated (“abated; suspended”) in the expression bated breath.
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| The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. |
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