bate

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

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

from The Century Dictionary.

• 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.
• To contend; strive; quarrel.
• noun The grain of wood or stone.
• 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 Obsolete or dialectal preterit of bite.
• noun Same as bath.
• noun The alkaline solution in which hides are steeped after being limed, in order to remove or neutralize the lime.

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

• noun obsolete Strife; contention.
• noun (Jewish Antiq.) See 2d bath.
• 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.
• transitive verb obsolete To attack; to bait.
• intransitive verb obsolete To flutter as a hawk; to bait.
• noun An alkaline solution consisting of the dung of certain animals; -- employed in the preparation of hides; grainer.
• obsolete imp. of bite.
• transitive verb To steep in bate, as hides, in the manufacture of leather.

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

• noun Strife; contention.
• verb intransitive To contend or strive with blows or arguments.
• verb intransitive, falconry Of a falcon: To flap the wings vigorously.
• verb nonstandard Simple past of beat; = beat.
• 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 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.