ABATE

To beat down; to overthrow. [Obs.] The King of Scots . . . sore abated the walls. Edw. Hall.

To bring down or reduce from a higher to a lower state, number, or degree; to lessen; to diminish; to contract; to moderate; toto 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.

To deduct; to omit; as, to abate something from a price. Nine thousand parishes, abating the odd hundreds. Fuller.

To blunt. [Obs.] To abate the edge of envy. Bacon.

To reduce in estimation; to deprive. [Obs.] She hath abated me of half my train. Shak.

(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.

To decrease, or become less in strength or violence; as, pain abates, a storm abates. The fury of Glengarry . . . rapidly abated. Macaulay.

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.

Abatement. [Obs.] Sir T. Browne.