bate
verb · noun
Simple meaning
To reduce the force of something.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
baytIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈbeɪt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
verb
transitive
To reduce the force of something; to abate.
Moderate or restrain; lessen the force of
“He bated his breath when talking about this affair.”
To lessen by retrenching, deducting, or reducing; to abate; to beat down; to lower.
transitive
To restrain, usually with the sense of being in anticipation
transitive
To soak leather so as to remove chemicals used in tanning; to steep in bate.
To waste away.
noun
An alkaline lye which neutralizes the effect of the previous application of lime, and makes hides supple in the process of tanning.
Strife; contention.
A vat which contains this liquid.
ireland
Direction, course, track
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: To reduce the force of something; to abate.
Used this way, bate is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.