Word.ws English Dictionary

redbait

redbait verb: to attack by denouncing as a Communist.

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

Noun

redbait (plural redbait)

  1. A fish, Emmelichthys nitidus
  2. Pyura stolonifera, an ascidian often used as bait by anglers.

Forms of redbait

Verb
third-person singular presentredbaits
present participleredbaiting
past participleredbaited
pastredbaited
alternative formred-bait
Noun
pluralredbait

Origin of redbait

From red + bait.

Questions about redbait

What does redbait mean?
Redbait means to attack by denouncing as a Communist.
What part of speech is redbait?
Redbait can be a verb or a noun.
What is the past tense of redbait?
The past tense of redbait is redbaited.

Words near redbait in the dictionary

  1. redazzled
  2. redazzles
  3. redazzling
  4. redback
  5. redbacks
  6. redbait
  7. redbaited
  8. redbaiter
  9. redbaiters
  10. redbaiting
  11. redbaits

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: 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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