ABATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does abate mean? 

• ABATE (verb)
  The verb ABATE has 2 senses:

1. make less active or intense

2. become less in amount or intensity

  Familiarity information: ABATE used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ABATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they abate    ... he / she / it abates   
Past simple: abated   
Past participle: abated   
-ing form: abating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Make less active or intense

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

abate; slack; slake

Hypernyms (to "abate" is one way to...):

decrease; lessen; minify (make smaller)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Derivation:

abatable (capable of being abated)

abator (a person who abates a nuisance)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Become less in amount or intensity

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

abate; die away; let up; slack; slack off

Context example:

The rain let up after a few hours

Hypernyms (to "abate" is one way to...):

decrease; diminish; fall; lessen (decrease in size, extent, or range)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Derivation:

abatement (an interruption in the intensity or amount of something)

 Context examples 

Maud laughed at my crestfallen expression, and I said, As soon as the wind abates I intend going in the boat to explore the island.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The reader will easily believe, that from what I had hear and seen, my keen appetite for perpetuity of life was much abated.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

An agency in the executive branch which endeavors to abate and control pollution in the areas of air, water, solid waste, noise, radiation, and toxic substances.

(Environmental Protection Agency, NLM, Medical Subject Headings)

Wind abating; seas still terrific, but feel them less, as ship is steadier.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Helen regarded me, probably with surprise: I could not now abate my agitation, though I tried hard; I continued to weep aloud.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She knew I did; for the stateliness of her manner already abated towards me, except when she spoke in praise of him, and then her air was always lofty.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It would be strange else, seeing that all the great lords of England and of Gascony are within the walls, and each would have his trumpeter blow as loud as his neighbor, lest it might be thought that his dignity had been abated.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Time would undoubtedly abate somewhat of his sufferings, but still it was a sort of thing which he never could get entirely the better of; and as to his ever meeting with any other woman who could—it was too impossible to be named but with indignation.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Ikeega tore her hair and put soot of the seal-oil on her face in token of her grief; and the women assailed the men with bitter words in that they had mistreated the boy and sent him to his death; and the men made no answer, preparing to go in search of the body when the storm abated.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

When the snow storm abated a moment we looked again.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)