bate /beɪt/verb 12noun 4forms 3phrases 1 verb12 •To reduce the force of something; to abate.Ah, left some Thorn shoul'd pierce thy tender Foot, / Or thou shoul'dst fall in flying my pursuit! / To sharp uneven Ways thy steps decline; / Abate thy Speed, and I will bate of mine. — 1717 •To restrain, usually with the sense of being in anticipation[…] and to his dying day he bated his breath a little when he told the story of the stroke with the willow wand. — 1859 •To lessen by retrenching, deducting, or reducing; to abate; to beat down; to lower.[W]hen the Landholder's Rent falls, he must either bate the Labourer's Wages, or not imploy, or not pay him; which either way makes him feel the want of Money. — 1691 •To allow by way of abatement or deduction.These are the conditions of his treating with God, to whom he bates nothing or what he stood upon with the Parlament: as if Commissions of Array could deale with him also. — 1649 •(slang) Clipping of masturbate. •Of a falcon: to flap the wings vigorously; to bait. •To cut off, remove, take away.Also about Autumne bate the earth from about the roots of Olives, and lay them bare, but in stead thereof put good mucke thereto. — 1601 •To deprive of.When baseness is exalted, do not bate / The place its honour for the person's sake; […] — 1634 •To contend or strive with blows or arguments. •To soak leather so as to remove chemicals used in tanning; to steep in bate. •To waste away.Bardoll, am I not falne away vilely since this last action? do I not bate? do I not dwindle? Why, my skinne hangs about me like an old Ladies loose gowne. — 1597 •(no longer used) To leave out, except, bar.Bate the King, and be he flesh and blood, / He lyes that saies it, thy mother at fifteen / Was black and sinful to her. — 1608 noun4 •An alkaline lye which neutralizes the effect of the previous application of lime, and makes hides supple in the process of tanning.The process of unliming hides and skins in tanning has been a slow and disgusting one, consisting in soaking the skins in a bath of manure in water, called bate. — 1888 •Strife; contention.[…] and weares his Boot very smooth, like vnto the Signe of the Legge; and breedes no bate with telling of discreete stories: — 1596 •A vat which contains this liquid. •(Ireland) direction, course, track formsbated · bating · bates Phrases with bate bate an aceTo make the least abatement or reduction.
