crow-bait n.
1. (Aus.) a derog. term for an Aborigine.
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | DSUE (8th edn) 273/1: since ca. 1830. |
2. (orig. US) an emaciated horse.
| [ | ![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Spirit of the Times (N.Y.) 14 Feb. 382/1: He had a ole ball-face, bob-tail rip, jest’ ’bout fit for crow-bait, which he was proud as fury on — sech a hoss! [DA]]. |
 | Marysville (CA) Appeal 25 Mar. 2/1: For many moments did the excited teamster ‘cuss’ and belabor his crow-baits, but they wouldn’t budge an inch [DA]. | |
| Affectionately Rachel letter 6 Feb. (1992) 299: The driver got down, and held the heads of his old crowbaits. | |
| Ocala Eve. Star (FL) 1 July 1/1: Why does a man, when he gets a five dollar raw-boned plug and a ten dollar cart, have to rein the poor crowbait [...] so that it can’t see the ground in front of it? | |
| Thirty-One Years on the Plains and in the Mountains (1903) 394: Mounting my crow-bait, I struck out in a westerly direction. | |
| ‘The Last Chance’ in Old Man Curry 117: Maybe the old crow-bait will go better in the mud. | |
| Adventures of a Boomer Op. 73: The ‘Bus’ was hitched to a piece of crow-bait that was born when chickens sold for two bits apiece. | |
| Let Tomorrow Come 216: A skinner chides a mule: ‘Giddap, crow bait, ’fore I fan your tail wi’ this leather’. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 16 Dec. 9/1: Fix up this tug for her, so she can reach Los Pinos — if this crowbait [...] can get her there. | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | Western Mail (Perth) 6 Dec. 18/2: What’s the old crowbait like? | |
![[WI]](/static/img/flags/wi.png "West Indies") | Cactus Village 33: You can start to get you’ two old crow-baits them ready. | |
| , | | DAS. |
| (con. 1916) Tin Lizzie Troop (1978) 162: You guys look after your crow-baits. | |
| Dragon Reborn 489: If he had a good horse instead of the crowbaits we were riding, he could have set out. |
3. attrib. use of sense 2.
| Bismarck Dly Trib. (ND) 22 Feb. 15/3: he had three cows and a team of old crowbait horses. | |
| Arizona Nights 27: Texas Pete had bored one of them poor old crow-bait hosses plumb through the head. | |
| Day Book (Chicago) 30 Jan. 19/2: He set out early with his clumsy bobsled and his crowbait steed. | |
| ‘Sandhill Sundays’ in Botkin Folk-Say 290: Out of the East [...] came the movers, pounding their crowbait ponies. | |
| ‘Rope Meat’ in Wild West Weekly 22 Oct. 🌐 Even if they recognized Loney’s clothes and crowbait cayuse. |
4. (US) an unpleasant, despised person.
| Bulletin (Sydney) 21 Mar. 13/3: Did he stigmatise each individual as a thieving, Hades-destined, crow-bait? [Ibid.] 25 Apr. 17/4: ‘Did it hit me, or do I dream?’ he murmured, gazing appealingly at the bystanders. ‘Did that pigeon-breasted, hen-toed, emu-legged crow-bait, with his neck in a bandage, plug me, Angus Gad, of Back Creek, or are there bat’s about?’. | |
| (con. 1918) Top Kick 117: You old crow bait, you cheat the sausage-maker every day of your life. | |
| Dangling Man 119: Do you think you can get away with it forever [...] you crowbait? | |
| My Friend Irma II ii: An old buzzard, a hunk o’ crowbait like her! |
5. (US) a corpse that has been exposed to the elements.
| Buffalo Bill 21: ‘[T]here's a pretty good lot o’ reds lying around loose for crow-bait’. | |
| ‘The Freak’ in Rhymes from Mines 129: But I might ’a’ been crow-bait by now. | |
| ‘American Euphemisms for Dying’ in AS XI:3 202: Tomorrow you’ll be crowbait. | |
| Criminal Sl. (rev. edn). |
6. (US Und.) an old person.
| Argot: Dict. of Und. Sl. |