expressions with the word bait

First of all, have you ever heard of the word bait? It's very simple to understand if you just take a look at the picture above. That's what a bait is. If the picture still doesn't say much to you, a bait is any food used to entice fish or other animals as pray. So if you decide to go fishing for example, you're going to need, among other things, a bait to get the fish. And now that we've learned the literal meaning of the word bait, let's try to learn some expressions with it.

I heard the first expression with the word bait while watching Orange is the New Black, an original Netflix series. They were discussing the idea of contacting the media and calling its attention to some problems in the prison system, but because of a big storm coming, people had other priorities on the news to talk about. So here's what one of the characters said after being asked about the media's reaction: "Nobody took the bait with the story. There's a storm coming". When someone takes the bait, it means they accept something that was offered to get them to do something. So if the media had taken the bait with what the inmates were trying to tell, their story, it would have acknowledged their complaints about the prison system and done something about it, like making it public.

Now imagine you have someone at your work environment that loves to get on your nerves. And how does he do that? He keeps dropping hints here and there saying very nasty things just to try to get a reaction from you. So while he's talking to other workmates, he makes a point to raise the tone of his voice to make sure you can hear he's speaking ill of you. You know a breakdown or a major outbreak is everything he wants from you, so you'd rather keep calm and not rise to the bait. But wait, what does that mean? When you rise to the bait, you get irritated by what someone has said. But keep in mind they say those bad things on purpose just to get an upset reaction from you. The expression alludes to the idea of a fish coming up from deep waters to seize bait.