Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🐻 A cruel sport 😠 To provoke 🐕 To attack a bear
to bear-baiting

to bear-baiting

9.9
To set dogs on a bear for people to watch
  • verb
  • NSFW
translation icon : azuzar perros contra un oso

Examples

  • True, all true—just as it is true that Shakespeare competed with bear-baiting for the entertainment dollars spent in Renaissance England.

    Academic text (1999)

  • The crowd gathered at the arena to watch the dogs bear-baiting the chained bear for sport.

  • In the past, bear-baiting was a popular attraction, drawing large audiences who enjoyed the spectacle.

  • Historically, bear-baiting involved setting dogs on a bear, making it a controversial blood sport.

Synonyms

to bait
vsto bear-baiting
35 6.8

To tease someone to make them angry or upset

is a specific cruel spectacle involving animals set to fight for entertainment

Antonyms

to protect
∞ 1.0

To keep someone or something safe from harm

Surface Forms

bear-baiting infinitive

Morphology

bear-baiting = bear-bait (transparent) = bear + bait + ing

The verb sense is a straightforward compound action: to 'bait' a 'bear', with -ing marking the verbal form presented.

Etymology

Bear-baiting comes from bear + bait, where 'bait' meant 'to set animals on another to attack', so it literally means to set dogs on a bear as a cruel sport.