Commonly Confused Words Baited and Bated

The words baited and bated are homophones: they sound alike but have different meanings. Definitions Baited is the past form of the verb bait, which means to tease, harass, or put food (or bait) in a trap. A hook, witness, or animal is baited (lured, enticed, tempted). The word bated is a clipped form of the past tense of the verb abate, which means to reduce or restrain. Breath is bated. Also see the usage notes below. Examples It’s always easiest to catch birds with baited traps at times of the year when there is little food available.To those waiting with bated breath for that favorite media catch phrase, the U-turn, I have only one thing to say: You turn if you want to—the ladys not for turning.(British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, 1980) Usage Notes The word baited is sometimes incorrectly substituted for the etymologically correct but unfamiliar word bated (abated; suspended) in the expression bated breath.(The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th ed., 2000)Whats the basis of bated, which we never hear in the present tense? It is a clip of abate, from the Old French abattre, to beat down, and now it means to moderate, subside, reduce, ebb. In connection with breathing, it means shorten or hold. When you abate your breath, you hold it in anticipation of some breathtaking event.The coiner was Shakespeare in his 1596 Merchant of Venice, in which Shylock says to Antonio, Shall I bend low and in a bondmans key,/With bated breath and whispering humbleness,/Say this:/Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last?(William Safire, Bated Breath. The New York Times, May 5, 2002) Practice (a) Im hoping with crossed fingers and _____ breath that gas prices will soon go down.(b)  Holding a  line with a _____ hook,  I stood on rocks in the waist-deep water. Answers to Practice Exercises Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words200 Homonyms, Homophones, and Homographs​ Answers to Practice Exercises: Baited and Bated (a) Im hoping with crossed fingers and bated breath that gas prices will soon go down.(b)  Holding a  line with a baited hook,  I stood on rocks in the  waist-deep water. Glossary of Usage: Index of Commonly Confused Words