ABET (abetted, abetting)

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

Irregular inflected forms: abetted    , abetting   

 Dictionary entry overview: What does abet mean? 

• ABET (verb)
  The verb ABET has 1 sense:

1. assist or encourage, usually in some wrongdoing

  Familiarity information: ABET used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ABET (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they abet    ... he / she / it abets   
Past simple: abetted   
Past participle: abetted   
-ing form: abetting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Assist or encourage, usually in some wrongdoing

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

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

assist (act as an assistant in a subordinate or supportive function)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

abetment; abettal (the verbal act of urging on)

abetter; abettor (one who helps or encourages or incites another)

 Context examples 

And he aided and abetted them in their unfriendly designs, for going to work was farthest from his thoughts.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

You may possibly have some idea, Miss Trotwood, of abetting him in his running away, and in his complaints to you.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

That, whereas certain ambassadors arrived from the Court of Blefuscu, to sue for peace in his majesty’s court, he, the said Flestrin, did, like a false traitor, aid, abet, comfort, and divert, the said ambassadors, although he knew them to be servants to a prince who was lately an open enemy to his imperial majesty, and in an open war against his said majesty.

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

I have already said that I do not believe that the Duchess would encourage so monstrous an action, but the lad had the most wrong-headed opinions, and it is possible that he may have fled to her, aided and abetted by this German.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I wish to set before you, honourably, the exact consequences—so far as they are within my knowledge—of your abetting him in this appeal.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

That the said Quinbus Flestrin, contrary to the duty of a faithful subject, is now preparing to make a voyage to the court and empire of Blefuscu, for which he has received only verbal license from his imperial majesty; and, under colour of the said license, does falsely and traitorously intend to take the said voyage, and thereby to aid, comfort, and abet the emperor of Blefuscu, so lately an enemy, and in open war with his imperial majesty aforesaid.

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

For anything that I can perceive to the contrary, it is still probable that my children may be reduced to seek a livelihood by personal contortion, while Mrs. Micawber abets their unnatural feats by playing the barrel-organ.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Now I must caution you that if you abet him once, you abet him for good and all; if you step in between him and me, now, you must step in, Miss Trotwood, for ever.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Of the woman who abets you, I say nothing—since you, Clara, addressing my mother in a lower voice, from old associations and long-established fancies, have a weakness respecting her which is not yet overcome.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

How the emigrants never wrote home, otherwise than cheerfully and hopefully; how Mr. Micawber had actually remitted divers small sums of money, on account of those pecuniary liabilities, in reference to which he had been so business-like as between man and man; how Janet, returning into my aunt's service when she came back to Dover, had finally carried out her renunciation of mankind by entering into wedlock with a thriving tavern-keeper; and how my aunt had finally set her seal on the same great principle, by aiding and abetting the bride, and crowning the marriage-ceremony with her presence; were among our topics—already more or less familiar to me through the letters I had had.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)