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Lessen the force of
Answer for the clue "Lessen the force of ", 4 letters:
bate
Alternative clues for the word bate
Word definitions for bate in dictionaries
WordNet
Word definitions in WordNet
v. moderate or restrain; lessen the force of; "He bated his breath when talking about this affair"; "capable of bating his enthusiasm" flap the wings wildly or frantically; used of falcons soak in a special solution to soften and remove chemicals used in ...
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
Word definitions in Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
c.1300, "to contend with blows or arguments," from Old French batre "to hit, beat, strike," from Late Latin battere , from Latin batuere "to beat, knock" (see batter (v.)). In falconry, "to beat the wings impatiently and flutter away from the perch." Figurative ...
Usage examples of bate.
I had my way in the end--I usually do--besides the satisfaction of finding that Granger Bates was still capable of stepping right along with his wife.
True, he had not rolled up any such enormous fortune as that of Granger Bates, nor did he make in the public eye any such splendid and enviable figure.
Throughout the call the talk had been frankly, inevitably personal, and Susan Bates had treated Eliza Marshall, whose difficult and captious character she at once apprehended, with the most elaborate and ingenious simplicity.
Why, from Susan Bates, to be sure--and in this very place: strophe and antistrophe.
Granger Bates, whose escort could not but expect to draw scrutiny and to provoke inquiry.
Her card was filled to the last line, and she danced it out--with William Bates, with Arthur Paston, and with a score of other young men for whose names the present pages have no need.
Susan Bates, in fact, had renewed the attack, and she prosecuted it whenever occasion offered.
Marshall noticed that Bates had put his flowers into his right-hand button-hole, and Bingham his into his left.
XIII Eliza Marshall meditated on the Bates dinner for several days succeeding, and when the following Saturday morning came round she was still busy with it.
On the side of William Bates there was his position, his ability, his certain future, and the sentimental resumption of old family relations.
But the more the family found to say directly and indirectly on behalf of William Bates, the more resolutely Rosamund turned her face in the opposite direction.
Paston, looking backward, saw Rosamund and William Bates together near the stern.
Susan Bates, with a slight touch of mortification, at once set the whole matter aside.
Susan Bates merely laughed, feeling that she had regained the upperhand.
Ingles at once appropriated William Bates for a walk through the framework of the unfinished dormitories.