bate

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• intransitive verb To flap the wings wildly or frantically. Used of a falcon.
• transitive verb To lessen the force or intensity of; moderate.
• transitive verb To take away; subtract.

from The Century Dictionary.

• To contend; strive; quarrel.
• To beat: in the phrase to bate the wings, to flutter, fly.
• In falconry, to beat the wings impatiently; flutter as preparing for flight, particularly at the sight of prey; flutter away.
• To flutter; be eager or restless.
• To flutter or fly down.
• noun Contention; strife; debate.
• noun Obsolete and less correct spelling of bait.
• To beat down or away; remove by beating.
• To beat back, or blunt.
• To weaken; impair the strength of.
• To lessen or decrease in amount, weight, estimation, etc.; lower; reduce.
• To strike off; deduct; abate.
• To lessen in force or intensity; moderate; diminish: as, to bate one's breath, or with bated breath (see phrases, below); to bate one's or a person's curiosity.
• To rob or deprive of.
• To leave out; except; bar.
• To decrease or fall away in size, amount, force, estimate, etc.
• To steep, as a hide, in an alkaline lye. See bate, n.
• In jute-manuf., to separate (the raw material) into layers, and then soften by sprinkling with oil and water.
• noun The grain of wood or stone.
• noun Same as bath.
• noun The alkaline solution in which hides are steeped after being limed, in order to remove or neutralize the lime.
• noun Obsolete or dialectal preterit of bite.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun obsolete Strife; contention.
• transitive verb obsolete To attack; to bait.
• intransitive verb obsolete To flutter as a hawk; to bait.
• noun (Jewish Antiq.) See 2d bath.
• obsolete imp. of bite.
• transitive verb To steep in bate, as hides, in the manufacture of leather.
• noun An alkaline solution consisting of the dung of certain animals; -- employed in the preparation of hides; grainer.
• transitive verb To lessen by retrenching, deducting, or reducing; to abate; to beat down; to lower.
• transitive verb To allow by way of abatement or deduction.
• transitive verb obsolete To leave out; to except.
• transitive verb obsolete To remove.
• transitive verb obsolete To deprive of.
• intransitive verb To remit or retrench a part; -- with of.
• intransitive verb obsolete To waste away.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• verb nonstandard Simple past of beat; = beat.
• noun An alkaline lye which neutralizes the effect of the previous application of lime, and makes hides supple in the process of tanning.
• noun A vat which contains this liquid.
• verb transitive To soak leather so as to remove chemicals used in tanning; to steep in bate.
• verb intransitive, slang To masturbate.
• verb transitive To reduce the force of something; to abate.
• verb transitive To restrain, usually with the sense of being in anticipation; as, with bated breath.
• verb transitive, figuratively To cut off, remove, take away.
• verb archaic, transitive To leave out, except, bar.
• noun Strife; contention.
• verb intransitive To contend or strive with blows or arguments.