Small fish used as bait to catch larger fish during fishing; prey fish used to lure predator fish.
Compound of 'bait' (lure) + 'fish' (aquatic animal). This is a straightforward modern English compound describing the practical fishing practice of using small fish to catch bigger ones.
Baitfish are crucial to fishing ecosystems—understanding their behavior and migration is how fishermen predict where bigger fish will be, and some ecologists worry overharvesting baitfish is destabilizing ocean food webs.
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