noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   The young of various species of fish, especially herrings, sprats or smelts countable, uncountable
2. 2
   the edible young of especially herrings and sprats and smelts wordnet
3. 3
   Food prepared from such fish, often deep fried and served as a starter or snack. countable, uncountable
4. 4
   minnows or other small fresh- or saltwater fish (especially herring); usually cooked whole wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   To fish for whitebait. intransitive

Synonyms

All synonyms

european spratjollytail

Etymology

From white + bait.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.