# abatement
## English
### Etymology

From Middle English abatement, from Anglo-Norman abatre (“to abate”) (from Old French abatre), + -ment; equivalent to abate +‎ -ment.

### Pronunciation

* Audio (US):(file)
* (US, UK) IPA: /əˈbeɪt.mənt/

### Noun

abatement (countable and uncountable, plural abatements)
* The act of abating, or the state of being abated; a lessening, diminution, or reduction; a moderation; removal or putting an end to; the suppression. [First attested from 1340 to 1470.]
    The abatement of a nuisance is the suppression thereof.
* (accounting) The deduction of minor revenues incidental to an operation in calculating the cost of the operation.
* (law) The action of a person that abates, or without proper authority enters a residence after the death of the owner and before the heir takes possession.
* (law) The reduction of the proceeds of a will, when the debts have not yet been satisfied; the reduction of taxes due.[First attested around 1150 to 1350.]
* An amount abated; that which is taken away by way of reduction; deduction; decrease; a rebate or discount allowed; in particular from a tax. [Late 15th century.]
* (heraldry) A mark of dishonor on an escutcheon; any figure added to the coat of arms tending to lower the dignity or station of the bearer. [Early 17th century.]
* (Scotland) Waste of stuff in preparing to size.
* A beating down, a putting down.
* A quashing, a judicial defeat, the rendering abortive by law.
* Forcible entry of a stranger into an inheritance when the person seised of it dies, and before the heir or devisee can take possession; ouster.
* rebatement, real or imaginary marks of disgrace affixed to an escutcheon.

#### Synonyms

* (lessening): assuagement, declension, decline, decrease, deduction, depreciation, diminution, discount, drawback, ebb, evanishment, fading, lessening, lowering, mitigation, moderation, reduction, remission, settling, sinking, subsidence, waning. See also Thesaurus:diminution
* (in tax): allowance, rebate, remission

#### Antonyms

* (antonym(s) of “lessening”): accession, accretion, aggrandizement, augmentation, development, dilation, enlargement, growth, increase, increment,

#### Derived terms

* abatement ab initio
* defense in abatement
* in abatement
* photoabatement
* plea in abatement
* tax abatement

#### Translations
### References

* 1 2 Elliott K. Dobbie, C. William Dunmore, Robert K. Barnhart, et al. (editors), Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2004 [1998], →ISBN), page 2
* 1 2 3 Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909], →ISBN)
* 1 2 3 4 Lesley Brown, editor-in-chief, William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, editors (2002), “abatement”, in The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles, 5th edition, Oxford, New York, N.Y.: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 2.
* ↑ Laurence Urdang (editor), The Random House College Dictionary (Random House, 1984 [1975], →ISBN), page 1
* ↑ “abatement, n.”, in The Dictionary of the Scots Language, Edinburgh: Scottish Language Dictionaries, 2004–present, →OCLC.

### Further reading

* Abatement in the Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition, 1911)
* The Manual of Heraldry, Fifth Edition, by Anonymous, London, 1862, online at