Word.ws English Dictionary

tip baiting

tip baiting noun: in fast food delivery, the practice of promising a large tip (usually on a delivery app) so that the deliverer feels incentivised to swiftly reach their destination, only to deliberately decrease or cancel the tip once the delivery is completed. Also the present participle and gerund of tip bait.

Noun

tip baiting (uncountable)

  1. (Internet) In fast food delivery, the practice of promising a large tip (usually on a delivery app) so that the deliverer feels incentivised to swiftly reach their destination, only to deliberately decrease or cancel the tip once the delivery is completed.
    • Happy Holidays, from tip baiting Instacart [grocery delivery service] customers.2019 November 28, MatthewTelles, Twitter
    • Lindstrom said he has heard from drivers who have been burned by tip baiting frequently, while he has only experienced it once.2022 January 5, Scott Stump, “What is 'tip baiting'? Delivery driver explains deceptive practice in viral video”, in Today

Also used as

tip baiting is also the present participle and gerund of tip bait.

Forms of tip baiting

alternative formtip-baiting

Origin of tip baiting

From tip + baiting. Popularised during the 2020s with the rise of food delivery services because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but attested slightly earlier (see quotations below).

Questions about tip baiting

What does tip baiting mean?
Tip baiting means in fast food delivery, the practice of promising a large tip (usually on a delivery app) so that the deliverer feels incentivised to swiftly reach their destination, only to deliberately decrease or cancel the tip once the delivery is completed.
What part of speech is tip baiting?
Tip baiting is a noun.

Words near tip baiting in the dictionary

  1. tioxymid
  2. tip
  3. tip back
  4. tip bait
  5. tip baited
  6. tip baiting
  7. tip baits
  8. tip credit
  9. tip credits
  10. tip creep
  11. tip cup

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tip baiting (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:

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