ABATE

ABA'TE, verb transitive [Heb. Ch., to beat. The Saxon has the participle gebatod, abated. The prefix is sunk to a in abate and lost in beat. See Class Bd. No. 23, 33.]1. To beat down; to pull down; to destroy in any manner; as to abate a nuisance.2. To lessen; to diminish; to moderate; as to abate zeal; to abate pride; to abate a demand; to abate courage.3. To lessen; to mitigate; as to abate pain or sorrow.4. To overthrow; to cause to fail; to frustrate by judicial sentence; as to abate a writ.5. To deject; to depress; as to abate the soul. obsolete 6. To deduct; Nothing to add and nothing to abate 7. To cause to fail; to annul. By the English law, a legacy to a charity is abated by a deficiency of assets.8. In Conneticut, to remit, as to abate a tax.ABA'TE, verb intransitive To decrease, or become less in strength or violence; as pain abates; a storm abates.2. To fail; to be defeated, or come to naught; as a writ abates. By the civil law a legacy to a charity does not abate by deficiency of assets.3. In law, to enter into a freehold after the death of the last occupant, and before the heir or devisee takes possession.4. In horsemanship, to perform well a downward motion. A horse is said to abate or take down his curvets, when, working upon curvets, he puts both his hind legs to the ground at once, and observes the same exactness in all the times.

---

abate. Abate, v. to decrease, lessen, pull down, fail as a writ; remit as a tax [(Con.)]

---

A‐bate″ (ȧ‐bāt″), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Abated, p. pr. & vb. n. Abating.] [[OF. abatre to beat down, F. abattre, LL. abatere; ab or ad + batere, battere (popular form for L. batuere to beat). Cf. Bate, Batter.]] 1. 1. To beat down; to overthrow.
The King of Scots . . . sore abated the walls. Edw. Hall. 2. 2. To bring down or reduce from a higher to a lower state, number, or degree; to lessen; to diminish; to contract; to moderate; to cut short; as, to abate a demand; to abate pride, zeal, hope.
His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. Deut. xxxiv. 7. 3. 3. To deduct; to omit; as, to abate something from a price.
Nine thousand parishes, abating the odd hundreds. Fuller. 4. 4. To blunt.
To abate the edge of envy. Bacon. 5. 5. To reduce in estimation; to deprive.
She hath abated me of half my train. Shak. 6. 6. (Law) (a) To bring entirely down or put an end to; to do away with; as, to abate a nuisance, to abate a writ. (b) (Eng. Law) To diminish; to reduce. Legacies are liable to be abated entirely or in proportion, upon a deficiency of assets.
To abate a tax, to remit it either wholly or in part.