aid and abet
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˌeɪd‿n̩ əˈbɛt/
rhymes: -ɛt
Forms: form: aids and abets
form: aiding and abetting
form: aided and abetted
form: aided and abetted
Etymology: PIE word
 *h₂éd
From aid (“to provide support to, assist, help”) + and + abet (“to assist or encourage by aid or countenance in crime, incite”).
Senses: examples: text: A bank employee was accused of aiding and abetting the gang of robbers.
text: In my future letters I shall perhaps take the opportunity to prove to you that the more men there are in a state, the more prosperous its commerce; I shall prove as easily, that as commerce flourishes, men increase; these two things necessarily aid and abet each other.
ref: [1892], [Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de] Montesquieu, “Letter CXVI: Usbek to the Same [Rhedi]”, in John Davidson, transl., Persian Letters, London: George Routledge & Sons; New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Co., →OCLC, page 259:
text: What oppressed Jude was the thought that, having done a wrong thing of this sort himself, he was aiding and abetting the woman he loved in doing a like wrong thing, instead of imploring and warning her against it.
ref: 1894 December – 1895 November, Thomas Hardy, chapter VII, in Jude the Obscure, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1896, →OCLC, part III (At Melchester), page 202:
text: Caught, red-handed, on the spot, in the very act of aiding and abetting the traitors against the Republic of France, the Englishman could claim no protection from his own country.
ref: 1905 January 12, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “On the Track”, in The Scarlet Pimpernel, popular edition, London: Greening & Co., published 20 March 1912, →OCLC, page 261:
text: Moreover, "the superstitious" Fryer Lawrence—a figure of no higher moral standing than a "dronken gossyppe"—wilfully aids and abets the lovers [Romeo and Juliet] in their perfidious course of action, using the secret, even occultist, rituals of the Catholic Church to achieve his perverse ends.
ref: 2009, David Salter, “Shakespeare and Catholicism: The Franciscan Connection”, in William Shakespeare, edited by Harold Bloom, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations), new edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloom’s Literary Criticism, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 66:
topics: law
glosses: To assist (someone) in an illegal act as an accessory or accomplice.
examples: text: Murder itself was not more sternly and certainly punished in the State of Maryland, than that of aiding and abetting the escape of a slave.
ref: 1881, Frederick Douglass, “Escape from Slavery”, in Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, […], Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing Co., →OCLC, part II, page 196:
topics: law
glosses: To assist someone in (an illegal act) as an accessory or accomplice.
examples: text: From about April 13 to about May 17, 1962, registrant, during a time when it was undergoing a change in ownership and management, together with or aided and abetted by Smythe, willfully violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 […]
ref: 1964 May 11, In the Matter of SMYTHE, BOWERS, HILLIARD & CO., INC. […] File No. 8-8735: Findings and Opinion of the Commission (Securities Exchange Act Release; no. 7312), Washington, D.C.: Securities and Exchange Commission, page 1:
topics: law
glosses: To be an accessory or accomplice to someone in an illegal act.
Derived terms: aider and abettor