bate

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“
As for bread, there I'll bate-- beat I mean--either of you.

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Definitions (40)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. transitive verb To lessen the force or intensity of; moderate: "To his dying day he bated his breath a little when he told the story” (George Eliot). See Usage Note at bait1.
  2. transitive verb To take away; subtract.
  3. intransitive verb To flap the wings wildly or frantically. Used of a falcon.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (25)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (9)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (3)

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This word has been looked up 169 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

fensive ·  gree ·  fense ·  cide ·  ception ·  mand ·  haddie ·  echolocation ·  sert ·  dove-cot ·  baseballs ·  dove-cote
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (10)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Middle English baten, short for abaten; see abate.
  2. Middle English baten, from Old French batre, to beat; see batter1.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (8)

  1. Also bait; from Middle English baten (only intransitive), from Old French batre, modern F. battre, beat, flap (battre les ailes, beat the wings, flutter; reflex., se battre, flutter), = Provencal batre = Spanish batir = Portuguese bater = Italian battere, beat, etc., from Middle Latin (Late Latin) batere, battere, for L. batuere, battuere, beat, strike, whence also ult. English batter, battle, etc., and prob. in part the simple bat, v.: see these words. The orig. sense ‘beat’ is covered by bate, for abate, and batter.
  2. Early modern English also bait; from Middle English baten, by apheresis for abaten, abate, which thus becomes in form and in some senses identical with the orig. simple form represented by bate: see abate and bate.
  3. from Middle English baten, by apheresis for debaten, debate: see debate, v.
  4. from Middle English bate, bat, by apheresis for debate, debat, debate: see debate, n.
  5. Prob. a particular use of bate, properly spelled bait; cf. Swedish beta, tan, bait, = German beizen, steep in lye, macerate, bait, literally cause to bite: see bait.
  6. from bate, v.
  7. Also bait; origin unknown. Hence cross-bated.
  8. from Late Latin batus, from Greek βάτος, from Hebrew bath: see bath.
 

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/beɪt/
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