Citations:abate

English citations of abate

				1719	1851
ME «	15th c.	16th c.	17th c.	18th c.	19th c.	20th c.	21st c.

To decrease in force or intensity; to subside.
- 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 13:
  We work'd on, but the Water encreaſing in the Hold, it was apparent that the Ship would founder; and tho' the Storm began to abate a little, yet it was not poſſible ſhe could ſwim till we might run into a Port, ſo the Maſter continued firing Guns for help; and a light Ship, who had rid it out juſt a Head of us, ventured a Boat out to help us.
- 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 32:
  After this Stop,we made on to the Southward continually for ten or twelve Days, living very ſparing on our Proviſions, which began to abate very much, and going no oftener into the Shore than we were oblig'd to for freſh Water.
- 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 49:
  That which was our preſent Comfort, and all the Comfort we had, was, That contrary to our Expectation the Ship did not break yet, and that the Maſter ſaid, the Wind began to abate.
To decrease in amount or size.
- 1851 November 14, Herman Melville, “The Chase.—Third Day.”, in Moby-Dick; or, The Whale, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers; London: Richard Bentley, →OCLC, page 629:
  Whether fagged by the three days' running chase, and the resistance to his swimming in the knotted hamper he bore; or whether it was some latent deceitfulness and malice in him: whichever was true, the White Whale's way now began to abate, as it seemed, from the boat so rapidly nearing him once more; though indeed the whale's last start had not been so long a one as before.