I recently discovered that I did not know how to spell "bated" and in the process of looking up its correct spelling found this verse explaining the difference in Geoffrey Taylor's poem Cruel Clever Cat:
Sally, having swallowed cheese,
Directs down holes the scented breeze,
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.
Sally, having swallowed cheese,
Directs down holes the scented breeze,
Enticing thus with baited breath
Nice mice to an untimely death.
The use of, "baited breath" here, is simply a pun, as the cat was "baiting" the mouse with her cheese breath.
ReplyDelete"Bated breath" was first found in Shakespeare's, "The Merchant of Venice"
Bated is a shortened form of abated.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bated