Word.ws English Dictionary

queerbait

queerbait noun: a man who is attractive to queer/gay people.

Noun

queerbait (uncountable)

  1. (derogatory, slang, sometimes) A man who is attractive to queer/gay people.
    • A couple of them are UNO pukes; the others are just ugly and stupid or probably latent queerbait themselves. Anyway, they're always on the prowl for fresh meat down in the Quarter.1994, James Lee Burke, Dixie City Jam
    • “Cause you'd fuck anything, wouldn't you, queerbait, you little queer. I bet you've even fucked your own father!” Stunned silence at this.2003, Robin Tamblyn, King of Hollywood, page 44
    Synonyms:
    gaybait

Verb

queerbait (third-person singular simple present queerbaits, present participle queerbaiting, simple past and past participle queerbaited)

  1. (slang) To engage in queerbaiting (creating homoerotic tension, but not developing it, in a narrative work to reel in an LGBT audience).
  2. To harass or vilify someone for their real or imagined queerness, often to advance political ends against them.
    • The reasons for red-baiting among gays are more legitimate than reasons for queer-baiting among leftists, because much of the left is imbued with bigotry and certain socialist regimes have been and are oppressive of gays.1980 April 19, Scott Tucker, “Ring That Red Bell”, in Gay Community News, page 5

Synonyms of queerbait

Forms of queerbait

third-person singular presentqueerbaits
present participlequeerbaiting
past participlequeerbaited
pastqueerbaited

Origin of queerbait

From queer + bait (“something that allures”).

From queer + -bait (manipulation to elicit a particular response).

Words formed from queerbait

Questions about queerbait

What does queerbait mean?
Queerbait means a man who is attractive to queer/gay people.
What part of speech is queerbait?
Queerbait can be a noun or a verb.

Words near queerbait in the dictionary

  1. queer-bashing
  2. queerable
  3. queerantagonism
  4. queerantine
  5. queerantines
  6. queerbait
  7. queerbaited
  8. queerbaiter
  9. queerbaiters
  10. queerbaitier
  11. queerbaitiest

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: queerbait (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-queerbait.ogg.

Cite this entry: “queerbait.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/queerbait. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.