ABA'TE, v.t. [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 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. – Blackstone.
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. – Encyc.

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. [Obs.]
6. To deduct. Nothing to add and nothing to abate. – Pope.
7. To cause to fail; to annul. By the English law, a legacy to a charity is abated by a deficiency of assets.
8. To remit; as, to abate a tax.

1. To beat down; to overthrow.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   The King of Scots . . . sore abated the walls.
   Edw. Hall.

2. To decrease, or become less in strength or violence; as, pain abates, a storm abates.
   
   

   The fury of Glengarry . . . rapidly abated.
   Macaulay.

3. Abatement.
   
   
   [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.
4. 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.

5. To be defeated, or come to naught; to fall through; to fail; as, a writ abates.
   
   

   To abate into a freehold, To abate in lands (Law), to enter into a freehold after the death of the last possessor, and before the heir takes possession. See Abatement, 4.

   Syn. -- To subside; decrease; intermit; decline; diminish; lessen. -- To Abate, Subside. These words, as here compared, imply a coming down from some previously raised or excited state. Abate expresses this in respect to degrees, and implies a diminution of force or of intensity; as, the storm abates, the cold abates, the force of the wind abates; or, the wind abates, a fever abates. Subside (to settle down) has reference to a previous state of agitation or commotion; as, the waves subside after a storm, the wind subsides into a calm. When the words are used figuratively, the same distinction should be observed. If we conceive of a thing as having different degrees of intensity or strength, the word to be used is abate. Thus we say, a man's anger abates, the ardor of one's love abates, "Winter's rage abates". But if the image be that of a sinking down into quiet from preceding excitement or commotion, the word to be used is subside; as, the tumult of the people subsides, the public mind subsided into a calm. The same is the case with those emotions which are tumultuous in their nature; as, his passion subsides, his joy quickly subsided, his grief subsided into a pleasing melancholy. Yet if, in such cases, we were thinking of the degree of violence of the emotion, we might use abate; as, his joy will abate in the progress of time; and so in other instances.

6. To deduct; to omit; as, to abate something from a price.
   
   

   Nine thousand parishes, abating the odd hundreds.
   Fuller.

7. To blunt.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   To abate the edge of envy.
   Bacon.

8. To reduce in estimation; to deprive.
   
   
   [Obs.]

   She hath abated me of half my train.
   Shak.

9. 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)