Definition of "crow-bait" []

• An emaciated or decrepit horse, as likely soon to become carrion, and so attractive to crows. (noun)

The Century Dictionary (Public Domain)

• "Rosinante reincarnate, a gigantic "crow-bait" with a head as long and coarse as an eighteen-hand mule's, an under lip pendulous as a camel's dropping ears nearly long enough to brush flies off his nostrils, with such an ingrowing concavity of under jaw and convexity of face as would have enabled his head to supply the third of a nine-foot circle, a face curved as a scimitar and nearly as sharp."
• ""Let me set out in the open once, with a good horse under me instead of a specimen of crow-bait, and I'll open your eyes!""
• "We were some relieved to find the family all right, but Texas Pete had bored one of them poor old crow-bait hosses plumb through the head."