▪ I. abatement1
(əˈbeɪtmənt)
[a. OFr. abatement, abattement, f. abattre; see abate v.1 and -ment.]
The action of abating, or state of being abated, with most of the senses of the vb.
1. The act of overthrowing, putting down, or doing away with; the state of being overthrown, quashed or annulled. Obs. exc. as a Law term: the abatement of a nuisance, action, writ, or claim. ‘In its present most general signification it relates to writs or plaints, and means the quashing or destroying the plaintiff's writ or plaint.’ Tomlins.
| 1528 Perkins Profitable Booke v. §385. 167 (1642) A plea which goeth meerely in abatement of the writ. 1599 Marston Scourge of Villanie ii. vii. 205 Their only skill rests in Collusions, Abatements, stoppels, inhibitions. 1768 Blackstone Comm. III. 5 A fourth species of remedy..is the abatement, or removal, of Nusances. 1809 Tomlins Law Dict. s.v., A Plea in Abatement is a plea put in by the defendant, in which he shows cause to the court why he should not be impleaded or sued. 1860 Massey Hist. Engl. III. xxxi. 438 The opinion in Westminster Hall was in favour of the abatement. |
2. The act of lowering, lessening, or lightening; the state of depreciation, diminution, or decrease; the subsidence (of action); alleviation or mitigation (of evils).
| 1517 Hawes Past. Pleas. xliii. 14 And in like wise without abatement I shall cause for to be memoriall The famus actes. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. i. i. 13 Nought enters there..But falls into abatement, and low price. 1655 Cromwell (Carlyle) Sp. iv., I had much abatement of my hopes; though not a total frustration. 1675 Baxter Catholick Theologie ii. viii. 141 A delay of their future misery, and hopes of its abatement. 1794 Sullivan View of Nat. I. 67 Like a high sea on the abatement of a storm. 1878 Gladstone Prim. Homer 108 A sense of depression and disappointment, and abatement of the higher energies. |
† b. Something which lightens toil; relaxation, recreation. Obs.
| 1513 Douglas æneid v. prol. 45 For quha sa list sere gladsum gamis lere, Ful mony mery abaitmentis followis here. |
3. The result of abating or lessening; the amount by which anything is abated; decrease, deduction, drawback. lit. and fig. and as a technical term in Comm.
| 1624 J. Gee in Shaks. Cent. Pr. 160 The third abatement of the honor and continuance of this Scenicall company is, that they make their spectators pay to deare for their Income. 1625 Bacon Essays viii. 267 He hath a great Charge of Children: As if it were an Abatement to his Riches. 1722 De Foe Hist. Plague (1756) 183 All the Abatement I could get was only, that..I should be obliged to hold it but three Weeks. 1858 Ld. St. Leonards Hbk. on Property Law ii. 7 Equity will compel him to take it, and will allow him a proper abatement out of the purchase-money. 1866 Rogers Agric. & Prices I. xxviii. 677 The farmer obtained for the three years an abatement of two marks. |
4. Heraldry. A supposed mark of depreciation.
| 1610 J. Guillim Display of Heraldrie viii. §1. 31 (1611) An Abatement is an accidentall mark annexed to coat-armour denoting some vngentleman-like, dishonorable, or disloiall demeanour qualitie or staine in the bearer whereby the dignitie of the coate-armour is greatly abased. 1751 Chambers Cycl. s.v., It is a little controverted among authors, whether heraldry allows of any such things as regular abatements..The last editor of Guillim discards the whole notion of Abatements as a chimaera. |
▪ II. abatement2
(əˈbeɪtmənt)
[a. Anglo-Fr. abatement, earlier enbatement (both in Britton), f. abatre = enbatre; see abate v.2 and -ment.]
The action of abating in a heritage, usurpation of a tenement; intrusion, tortious entry. See abate v.2
| 1330 R. Brunne Chron. 278 For þat mischance of Blanche mariage, For þat abatement he chalenges it þorgh right. 1528 Perkins Profitable Booke v. §325. 144 (1642) If the heire of him after whose death the abatement was, recover the acre of land in which the abatement was. 1586 Hooker Giraldus's Hist. Ireland in Holinshed II. 83/2 After the decease of the earle James, a bastard Butler had by abatement intruded. 1717 Blount Law Dict., Abatement (Fr.) is sometimes used for the Act of the Abator; as the Abatement of the Heir into the Land, before he has agreed with the Lord. 1865 Nichols Britton iii. i. 3. II. 3 Intrusion is a wrongful abatement during the vacancy of the soil [Fr. intrusioun est torcenous abatement]. Ibid. iii. i. 4 By reason of the abatement [Fr. pur l'embatement]. Ibid. vi. ix. II. 354 Those impleaded of hamsoken, or of fresh force, or of abatement [Fr. ou de enbatement]. |