abates

Noun (1)

abate (countable and uncountable, plural abates)

1. (obsolete, uncountable) Abatement; reduction; (countable) an instance of this.
   • [Letter to Algernon Sidney dated 13 October 1681 (Julian calendar).] There are many things make a man's life uneasy in the world, which are great abates to the pleasure of living, but scarcely one equal to that of the unkindness or injustice of friends.1681 October 23, William Penn, chapter XIV, in Samuel M[acpherson] Janney, The Life of William Penn: With Selections from His Correspondence and Autobiography, 2nd edition, Philadelphia, Pa....
2. (obsolete, uncountable) Deduction; subtraction; (countable) an instance of this.
   • That men weigh heavier dead than alive, if experiment hath not failed us, we cannot reaſonably grant. For though the triall hereof cannot ſo well be made on the body of Man, nor will the difference be ſenſible in the abate of ſcruples or dragmes, yet can we not confirm the ſame in leſſer animalls...1650, Thomas Browne, “Concerning Weight”, in Pseudodoxia Epidemica: […], 2nd edition, London: […] A[braham] Miller, for Edw[ard] Dod and Nath[aniel] Ekins, […], →OCLC, 4th book, page 167

Noun (2)

abate (plural abates)

1. (obsolete) An Italian abbot or other member of the clergy.

See all 30 meanings of abate