Bearbaiting
noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 A blood sport in which dogs are set upon a chained bear countable, uncountable
"But bearbaiting, then a favourite diversion of high and low, was the abomination which most strongly stirred the wrath of the austere sectaries."
- 2 A bloodthirsty free for all. countable, figuratively, uncountable
"All of these pivoted on the larger Problems: Not only how the press should discuss sexual morality of public officials but whether this ever should be a measure of fitness for public office; not only how the local press will allow its judgment to be pre-empted or conditioned by the Washington press, but also how news judgments, always contagious, can degenerate into bear baiting."
- 1 present participle and gerund of bearbait form-of, gerund, participle, present
Example
More examples"But bearbaiting, then a favourite diversion of high and low, was the abomination which most strongly stirred the wrath of the austere sectaries."
Etymology
From Middle English bere baityng; equivalent to bear + baiting or bearbait + -ing.
Related phrases
More for "bearbaiting"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.