Word.ws English Dictionary

takes the bait

takes the bait is the third-person singular simple present indicative of take the bait.

Meaning of take the bait

Verb

take the bait (third-person singular simple present takes the bait, present participle taking the bait, simple past took the bait, past participle taken the bait)

  1. (literally) To nibble at bait on a hook.
    Synonyms:
    strike
  2. (figuratively) To be lured by an offer, flattery, or a provocation into doing something, especially something disadvantageous or dubious.
    • "I would like to first of all commend all of the police officers today. . . . They were in fact at various times provoked, and they didn't take the bait in any way, shape or form."1997 August 30, John Kifner, “Thousands Call on City Hall To Confront Police Brutality”, in New York Times, retrieved 08 May 2015
    Synonyms:
    bite, fall for it, rise to the bait

Questions about takes the bait

What is takes the bait the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Takes the bait is the third-person singular simple present indicative of take the bait.

Words near takes the bait in the dictionary

  1. takes something off someone's hands
  2. takes something to
  3. takes something to one's grave
  4. takes stock
  5. takes ten
  6. takes the bait
  7. takes the ball and runs with it
  8. takes the bench
  9. takes the biscuit
  10. takes the bitter with the sweet
  11. takes the bread out of someone's mouth

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: takes the bait (page history and authors); take the bait (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: “takes the bait.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/takes_the_bait. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.