Word.ws English Dictionary

bait and switch

bait and switch noun: an unscrupulous and sometimes illegal sales technique, in which an inexpensive product is advertised to attract prospective customers who are then told by sales personnel that the inexpensive product is unavailable or of poor quality and are instead urged to buy a more expensive product.

Noun

bait and switch

  1. An unscrupulous and sometimes illegal sales technique, in which an inexpensive product is advertised to attract prospective customers who are then told by sales personnel that the inexpensive product is unavailable or of poor quality and are instead urged to buy a more expensive product.
    • Seereeram and other critics say it was a sort of bait and switch. Citibank met with Trintomar three times in the spring of 1992 to pitch its original $66 million refinancing proposal, and in a letter dated Sept. 9, Trintomar asked for a formal proposal. The next day, Citibank sent a letter...2002 October 7, Jyoti Thottam, “Predators in Paradise?”, in Time
    • A teasing bait and switch, whereby creators promise more explicit content than they deliver, is a well-known feature of the industry.2026 May 28, Amelia Gentleman, “The strange surveilled life of Piper Rockelle: why did a former child influencer decide to go on OnlyFans?”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  2. (broadly) Any similar deceptive behavior, especially in politics and romantic relationships.
    • Jon: Hey, Garfield, let's get a pizza!
      […]
      Jon:On the way we'll stop at the vet.
      Garfield: It's the old bait and switch!1986 February 4, Jim Davis, Garfield

Verb

bait and switch (third-person singular simple present baits and switches, present participle baiting and switching, simple past and past participle baited and switched)

  1. To lure someone with an offer of some kind, but substitute something of greater advantage to the offerer.
    • Not when you are baiting and switching down from a stately antebellum manse to a tenement crack house.2008, Sarah Bird, How Perfect is That, page 242
    • ... she baits and switches then baits again.2011, Tim Palmer, Brutal Intimacy: Analyzing Contemporary French Cinema, page 178

Synonyms of bait and switch

Forms of bait and switch

third-person singular presentbaits and switches
present participlebaiting and switching
past participlebaited and switched
pastbaited and switched

Questions about bait and switch

What does bait and switch mean?
Bait and switch means an unscrupulous and sometimes illegal sales technique, in which an inexpensive product is advertised to attract prospective customers who are then told by sales personnel that the inexpensive product is unavailable or of poor quality and are instead urged to buy a more expensive product.
What part of speech is bait and switch?
Bait and switch can be a noun or a verb.

Words near bait and switch in the dictionary

  1. Baisley
  2. Baisleys
  3. Baiso
  4. bait
  5. bait advertising
  6. bait and switch
  7. bait ball
  8. bait balls
  9. bait bill
  10. bait bills
  11. bait boat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bait and switch (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-bait and switch.ogg.

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