[f. BAIT v.1 + -ING1.]
1. The action of setting on dogs to worry a chained or confined animal; formerly, also, the hunting or chasing of wild animals with dogs. Often in comb.: see BADGER, BEAR, BULL.
c. 1300. K. Alis., 199. Of liouns chase, of beore baityng.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 29. Beytynge of bestys wyth howndys, Exagitacio.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, I. xvii. In those great Amphitheaters, were exhibited … their baitings of wild beasts.
1768. Boswell, Corsica (ed. 2), 318. I have seen a Corsican in the very heat of a baiting … drive off the dogs.
b. fig. The action of worrying and harassing; persistent annoyance, persecution, torment.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 10895. He shal hem chastyse wyþ smert speche, Wyþ small baytinges ande nat wyþ wreche.
1627. H. Burton (title), The Baiting of the Pope’s Bvll.
a. 1859. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., V. 243. Mortified and intimidated by the baiting of the last session.
c. attrib., as in baiting-house, -place, -stake.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., V. i. 150. Wee ’l bate thy Bears to death If thou dar’st bring them to the bayting place.
1689. Pol. Ballads (1860), II. 3 (title), Rome in an Uproar; or, the Pope’s Bulls brought to the baiting-stake.
2. The action of giving food to horses, or of taking wayside refreshment, upon a journey.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 29. Beytynge of horse, Pabulacio.
1513. More, Rich. III. (1641), 355. Never resting nor themselves refreshing, except the bayting of their horses.
1655. W. Mewe, in Hartlib, Ref. Commw. Bees, 47. Travellers, that have benighted themselves by their frolick baitings.
1884. Harper’s Mag., Oct., 728/2. Hay … for the baiting of the horses.
b. The place at which, or occasion when, a halt is made for refreshment on a journey.
1495. Caxton, Jason, 37 b. Quene Myrro … taried than not longe at that bayting.
1753. Richardson, Grandison (1781), I. iv. 14. Mr. Fenwick attended us to our first baiting.
c. attrib., as in baiting-place, -season, -town.
1514. Barclay, Cyt. & Uplondyshm., Introd. (1847), 15. The Court is the bayting place of hell.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 509. The next stations and baiting townes.
a. 1639. Whateley, Prototypes, I. iv. (1640), 47. This [world] is a baiting-place and not a place of habitation.
1872. Jenkinson, Guide Eng. Lakes (1879), 55. The Wool-Pack Inn, a snug little baiting-place.
3. The action of furnishing (a hook, trap, etc.), or of strewing a fishing-ground, with bait.
1653. Walton, Angler, 153. This direction for the baiting your ledger hook.
1867. F. Francis, Angling, ii. (1880), 71. To repeat the baitings … two or three times.
b. attrib., as in baiting-needle, -place.
1708. Proclam., in Lond. Gaz., No. 4452/2. So as to Annoy the Haling of Sayns in the usual Baiting Places.
1875. ‘Stonehenge,’ Brit. Sports, I. V. iii. § 10. The gimp is passed under a good broad strip of skin with the baiting-needle.
