Word.ws English Dictionary

red-bait

red-bait is the alternative form of redbait.

Meaning of redbait

Verb

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

  1. (US, transitive) To 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

See all 3 meanings of redbait

Forms of red-bait

third-person singular presentred-baits
present participlered-baiting
past participlered-baited
pastred-baited

Questions about red-bait

What is red-bait the alternative form of?
Red-bait is the alternative form of redbait.

Words near red-bait in the dictionary

  1. red-backed sea eagle
  2. red-backed sea eagles
  3. red-backed shrike
  4. red-backed shrikes
  5. red-backs
  6. red-bait
  7. red-baited
  8. red-baiter
  9. red-baiters
  10. red-baiting
  11. red-baits

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: red-bait (page history and authors); redbait (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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Cite this entry: “red-bait.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/red-bait. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.