redbait

R1E1D2B3A1I1T1

verb

To attack by denouncing as a Communist.

Scrabble 10
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Meanings

verbredbait (third-person singular simple present redbaits, present participle redbaiting, simple past and past participle redbaited)

present singular third person redbaits · participle present redbaiting · participle past redbaited · past redbaited · alternative red-bait

  1. UStransitiveTo attack by denouncing as a Communist.

    While Jack Kennedy thrived in the 1950s as a sex-crazed, drug-dependent, ailment-ridden party-boy politician, Bobby, the family’s complicated sourpuss, hooked up with the redbaiting Joe McCarthy, then spun off as a crusading and corners-cutting scourge of labor corruption.

    2007 September 9, David Corn, “Collision Course”, in New York Times
nounredbait (plural redbait)
  1. A fish, Emmelichthys nitidus
  2. Pyura stolonifera, an ascidian often used as bait by anglers.

Origin

From red + bait.

Full word history & related roots →

Rhymes & wordplay

Anagrams

bitradetribade
Cite this entry
APA

redbait. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/redbait

MLA

“redbait.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/redbait. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “redbait,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/redbait.

Source: redbait on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.