rabattre

French

Etymology

From re- + abattre.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁa.batʁ/

• Audio:

  (file)

Verb

rabattre

1. to make something lower
2. to close, shut (down)
3. to fold over (covers, curtains etc.)
4. to turn down (a collar)
5. to pull down (a skirt)
6. to reduce, deduct, diminish
7. to cut back (a plant, tree)
8. to bind off (stitches in knitting)
9. (reflexive) to cut in
10. (reflexive, followed by sur) to fall back on
11. (reflexive) to (swing) shut

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like battre. That means it is conjugated like vendre, perdre, etc. (sometimes called the regular -re verbs), except that instead of *rabatt and *rabatts, it has the forms rabat and rabats. This is strictly a spelling change; pronunciation-wise, the verb is conjugated exactly like vendre.

Conjugation of rabattre (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	rabattre
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	rabattant /ʁa.ba.tɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		rabattu /ʁa.ba.ty/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	rabats /ʁa.ba/	rabats /ʁa.ba/	rabat /ʁa.ba/	rabattons /ʁa.ba.tɔ̃/	rabattez /ʁa.ba.te/	rabattent /ʁa.bat/
	imperfect	rabattais /ʁa.ba.tɛ/	rabattais /ʁa.ba.tɛ/	rabattait /ʁa.ba.tɛ/	rabattions /ʁa.ba.tjɔ̃/	rabattiez /ʁa.ba.tje/	rabattaient /ʁa.ba.tɛ/
	past historic2	rabattis /ʁa.ba.ti/	rabattis /ʁa.ba.ti/	rabattit /ʁa.ba.ti/	rabattîmes /ʁa.ba.tim/	rabattîtes /ʁa.ba.tit/	rabattirent /ʁa.ba.tiʁ/
	future	rabattrai /ʁa.ba.tʁe/	rabattras /ʁa.ba.tʁa/	rabattra /ʁa.ba.tʁa/	rabattrons /ʁa.ba.tʁɔ̃/	rabattrez /ʁa.ba.tʁe/	rabattront /ʁa.ba.tʁɔ̃/
	conditional	rabattrais /ʁa.ba.tʁɛ/	rabattrais /ʁa.ba.tʁɛ/	rabattrait /ʁa.ba.tʁɛ/	rabattrions /ʁa.ba.tʁi.jɔ̃/	rabattriez /ʁa.ba.tʁi.je/	rabattraient /ʁa.ba.tʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	rabatte /ʁa.bat/	rabattes /ʁa.bat/	rabatte /ʁa.bat/	rabattions /ʁa.ba.tjɔ̃/	rabattiez /ʁa.ba.tje/	rabattent /ʁa.bat/
	imperfect2	rabattisse /ʁa.ba.tis/	rabattisses /ʁa.ba.tis/	rabattît /ʁa.ba.ti/	rabattissions /ʁa.ba.ti.sjɔ̃/	rabattissiez /ʁa.ba.ti.sje/	rabattissent /ʁa.ba.tis/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	rabats /ʁa.ba/	—	rabattons /ʁa.ba.tɔ̃/	rabattez /ʁa.ba.te/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• rabattre le caquet
• rabattre le clapet

 

Descendants

• German: Rabatt

Further reading

• “rabattre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• baratter