Forms: 4–6 bayte, 5 beyt, 5–6 bayt, 6 beyte, 6–7 baight, 6–8 baite, 5– bait. [Partly a. ON. beit (neut.) pasture, beita (fem.) food, esp. as used to entice a prey, cogn. w. OE. bát f. food, MHG. beiz n., beize f. hunting; in part directly f. BAIT v.1]
I. Food used to entice a prey.
1. An attractive morsel of food placed on a hook or in a trap, in order to allure fish or other animals to seize it and be thereby captured.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 16931. Þe bait apon þe hok.
a. 1325. Metr. Hom., 12. Als fisce es tan wit bait and hoc.
1444. Pol. Poems (1859), II. 219. Bosard with botirflyes makith beytis for a crane.
a. 1639. Breton, in Farr’s S. P. (1845), I. 182. Wherein as hook within the Baight … Some hidden poyson lurking lyes.
1653. Walton, Angler, 53. Let your bait fall gently upon the water.
1836. Hor. Smith, Tin Trump. (1876), 49. Bait—one animal impaled upon a hook, in order to torture a second for the amusement of a third.
b. Worms, fish, etc., to be used for this purpose.
1496. Bk. St. Albans, Fishing, 7. How ye shall make your baytes brede where ye shall fynde them: and how ye shall kepe theym.
1653. Walton, Angler, To Rdr. 7. With advise how to make the Fly, and keep the live baits.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, II. 267. Some trouble … to keep the bait alive.
2. fig. An enticement, allurement, temptation.
c. 1400. MS. Cantab. Ff. II. 38. [46/2] 54/2. Thys worlde ys but the fendys beyte.
1460. Pol. Rel. & L. Poems (1866), 155. My body I made hyr hertys baite.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 179. A doore without locke, is a baite for a knaue.
1745. De Foe, Eng. Tradesm., I. vi. 36. The profits of trade are baits to the avaricious shopkeeper.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 246. He considered titles and great offices as baits which could allure none but fools.
3. Comb. and attrib., as bait-can, -gatherer, -kettle.
1799. G. Smith, Laboratory, II. 267. By frequently dipping your bait-kettle in the water.
1842. Johnston, in Proc. Berw. Nat. Club, II. x. 36. The bait-gatherer, for picking them from the rocks … has 8d. per day.
II. Food generally.
† 4. Food, refreshment; esp. a feed for horses, or slight repast for travellers, upon a journey. Still dial. light refreshment taken between meals.
1570. Levins, Manip., /203. Bayt, refrigerium, refectio.
1573. Tusser, Husb. (1878), 203. O thou fit bait for wormes!
1661. Lovell, Hist. Anim. & Min., Introd. When they [serpents] devoure any great baite, they contract themselves.
1706. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv., I. XII. 24. Could (if she ’ad had her Will) have eat The Saddle Stuffing for a Bait.
1741. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. xxxii. 56. Stopping for a little bait to the horses.
1851. Coal-tr. Terms Northumbld. & Durh., Bait, provision taken by a pitman to his work.
1883. Harper’s Mag., April, 655/1. Afternoon ‘bait,’ or lunch [in Sussex].
5. A halt for refreshment in the course of a journey; a stoppage for rest. Welsh or Scotch bait: allowing a horse to stand still a few minutes at the top of a hill (see Fuller, Worthies, IV. 7).
1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 250. This merry winde will immediately bring vs to an easie bayte.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., 12. To haue gone to heauen without a bait.
1633. P. Fletcher, Elisa, I. xli. Heav’nly fires … Whose motion is their bait, whose rest is restlesse giring.
1809. Pinkney, Trav. France, 80. They make a stage of thirty miles without a bait.
† 6. fig. a. Refreshment; a lawyer’s ‘refresher.’ b. A hasty meal like a traveller’s, a snack. Obs.
a. 1579. Lyly, Euphues (Arb.), 198. A pleasaunt companion is a bait in a journy.
1603. Florio, Montaigne, II. xii. (1632), 319. Have you paid him [the Lawyer] well, have you given him a good baite or fee?
b. 1662. Fuller, Worthies (1840), II. 507. He rather took a bait than made a meal at the inns of court, whilst he studied the laws therein.
1666. Evelyn, Diary (1827), IV. 175. I now and then get a baite at philosophy.
7. Comb. and attrib., as bait-land (see quot.); bait-poke, a bag for holding a miner’s ‘bait.’
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 122. A bait-land, or port of refreshment.
1863. Robson’s Bards of Tyne, 271. And queer things behint them like pitmen’s bait pokes.
III. The act of setting dogs to worry other animals; baiting; also (obs.) chasing with dogs.
[c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1461. Þen, brayn-wod for bate, on burnez he [the boar] rasez.]
c. 1450. Henryson, Mor. Fab., 67. At the next bayte in faith yee shall bee slaine.
1570. Levins, Manip., /203. Bayt of a beare, ursi prelium. Bayt of a bul, tauri venatio.
