Emily Dickinson Lexicon

A-BATE', v.i.

1. To decrease, or become less in strength or violence; as, pain abates; a storm abates.
2. To fail; to be defeated, or come to naught; as, a writ abates. By the civil law a legacy to a charity does not abate by deficiency of assets.
3. In law, to enter into a freehold after the death of the last occupant, and before the heir or devisee takes possession. – Blackstone.
4. In horsemanship, to perform well a downward motion. A horse is said to abate, or take down his curvets, when, working upon curvets, he puts both his hind legs to the ground at once, and observes the same exactness in all the times. – Encyc.