Other forms: abated, abating, abates
To abate is to become less fierce, as a storm does. The wind abated, the pain has abated, show no sign of abating.
It is almost always intransitive now — a thing abates rather than being abated — and it belongs to storms, pain, noise and anger. In law it has a technical use: to abate a nuisance is to end it. Note abatement, the noun.
1verbabateTo become less fierce.
“We waited in the café until the storm abated.”
abate is a lessening.
Anglo-Norman abatre means to beat down, from Latin ad plus battuere, to beat. Battle comes from the same beating.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰedʰ-
Latin
abbatto
Anglo-Norman
abatre
Middle English
abaten
English, today
abate
Built from
From Middle English abaten, from Anglo-Norman abatre, from Latin abbatto, from Latin batto. 2 The verb is derived from Middle English abaten (“to demolish, knock down; to defeat, strike down; to strike or take down (a sail); to throw down; to bow dejectedly or submissively; to be dejected; to stop; to defeat, humiliate; to repeal (a law); to dismiss or quash (a lawsuit); to lessen, reduce; to injure, impair; to appease; to decline, grow less; to deduct, subtract; to make one’s way; attack (an enemy); (law) to enter or intrude upon (someone’s property); of a hawk: to beat or flap the wings”)abate, abatie, abatien, abatye, abbate, from Anglo-Norman abater, abatier, abatre, abbatre, Middle French abattre, abatre, abattre, Old French abatre, abattre (“to demolish, knock down; to bring down, cut down; to lessen, reduce; to suppress; to stop; to discourage; to impoverish, ruin; to conquer; to overthrow; to kill; to remove (money) from circulation; (law) to annul”), from Latin abbatto (“to bring down, take down; to suppress; to debase (currency)”), from Latin ab- + Latin batto, from older battuo (“to beat, hit; to beat up; to fight”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European bʰedʰ- (“to dig; to stab”)).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA