Bait means food or other enticement placed, as a lure, on a hook, or in a trap: “Fishermen need to offer bait to capture fish.”
Another meaning of bait is to torment with persistent insult or ridicule: “It is almost a rule of every country to bait its minorities.”
Bate on the other hand means to decrease, to lesson the force or intensity of, to moderate: “He bated his breath when talking about this affair.”
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