bate

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. 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. v. To take away; subtract.
3. v. To flap the wings wildly or frantically. Used of a falcon.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To beat: in the phrase to bate the wings, to flutter, fly.
2. In falconry, to beat the wings impatiently; flutter as preparing for flight, particularly at the sight of prey; flutter away.
3. To flutter; be eager or restless.
4. To flutter or fly down.
5. To beat down or away; remove by beating.
6. To beat back, or blunt.
7. To weaken; impair the strength of.
8. To lessen or decrease in amount, weight, estimation, etc.; lower; reduce.
9. To strike off; deduct; abate.
10. To lessen in force or intensity; moderate; diminish: as, to bate one's breath, or with bated breath (see phrases, below); to bate one's or a person's curiosity.
11. To rob or deprive of.
12. To leave out; except; bar.
13. To decrease or fall away in size, amount, force, estimate, etc.
14. To contend; strive; quarrel.
15. n. Contention; strife; debate.
16. n. Obsolete and less correct spelling of bait.
17. To steep, as a hide, in an alkaline lye. See bate, n.
18. In jute-manuf., to separate (the raw material) into layers, and then soften by sprinkling with oil and water.
19. n. The alkaline solution in which hides are steeped after being limed, in order to remove or neutralize the lime.
20. n. Obsolete or dialectal preterit of bite.
21. n. The grain of wood or stone.
22. n. Same as bath.

Wiktionary

1. n. Strife; contention.
2. v. intransitive To contend or strive with blows or arguments.
3. v. intransitive, falconry Of a falcon: To flap the wings vigorously.
4. v. nonstandard Simple past of beat; = beat.
5. n. An alkaline lye which neutralizes the effect of the previous application of lime, and makes hides supple in the process of tanning.
6. n. A vat which contains this liquid.
7. v. transitive To soak leather so as to remove chemicals used in tanning; to steep in bate.
8. v. intransitive, slang To masturbate.
9. v. transitive To reduce the force of something; to abate.
10. v. transitive To restrain, usually with the sense of being in anticipation; as, with bated breath.
11. v. transitive, figuratively To cut off, remove, take away.
12. v. archaic, transitive To leave out, except, bar.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. obsolete Strife; contention.
2. v. To lessen by retrenching, deducting, or reducing; to abate; to beat down; to lower.
3. v. To allow by way of abatement or deduction.
4. v. obsolete To leave out; to except.
5. v. obsolete To remove.
6. v. obsolete To deprive of.
7. v. To remit or retrench a part; -- with of.
8. v. obsolete To waste away.
9. v. obsolete To attack; to bait.
10. obsolete imp. of bite.
11. v. obsolete To flutter as a hawk; to bait.
12. n. (Jewish Antiq.) See 2d bath.
13. n. An alkaline solution consisting of the dung of certain animals; -- employed in the preparation of hides; grainer.
14. v. To steep in bate, as hides, in the manufacture of leather.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. soak in a special solution to soften and remove chemicals used in previous treatments
2. v. moderate or restrain; lessen the force of
3. v. flap the wings wildly or frantically; used of falcons