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abate

/əˈbeɪt//əˈbeɪt/·verb
to become less intense, severe, or widespread
Fig. 1 — I wait out a downpour with a man under a bus-shelter roof, the rain coming down slantwise and furious.
01Definition

To abate is to die down — to become weaker, gentler, or less severe over time. Storms abate, pain abates, public anger abates. The word almost always describes the force of something unpleasant or overwhelming draining away rather than the thing disappearing all at once: it is still there, but its intensity is easing off. Unlike diminish, which tracks a shrinking in size or number, abate is about a violent or unwelcome thing losing its grip. It can also be used transitively — to reduce something deliberately, as in measures taken to abate noise pollution.

02In use
  • iThe storm abated overnight, though the floodwater it left behind would linger for days.
  • iiPublic enthusiasm for the project abated once the costs became clear.
  • iiiThe city introduced strict regulations to abate noise from the airport.
03Collocations
  • the storm abated
  • show no sign of abating
  • abate noise pollution
  • public anger abated
  • the floodwaters abated

Family abatement (noun)

04Relations

=subside, diminish, wane, lessen, ebb

≠intensify, escalate, surge

05Compared
PairThe difference
abate vs aggravatethe trouble dies down on its own → abate; an outside hand makes it worse → aggravate.
abate vs alleviatethe bad thing dies down on its own → abate; someone or something eases the suffering → alleviate.
abate vs diminishabate = the force of something unpleasant dies down (a storm, pain); diminish = a size, number or value shrinks.
abate vs easea force dies down of its own accord (storm, outcry) → abate; gentle, gradual loosening, done or felt (pressure, tension) → ease.
abate vs exacerbatethe trouble settles of its own accord → abate; a named factor builds it higher → exacerbate.

Also compared with lessen, mitigate, relieve, subside, worsen

06TOEFL & IELTS

A classic academic verb for describing downward trends. In IELTS reading passages it appears in texts about climate, epidemics, and economics ('as the floodwaters abated…'). In TOEFL lectures it often signals a turning point in a process. Using 'abate' instead of 'go down' in Writing Task 2 — for example, 'there is little sign that demand will abate' — is an easy way to demonstrate range. Distinguish it from diminish: abate is an intensity or force dying down (a storm, pain, an uproar), while diminish also covers a shrinking in size, number, or importance.

07Asked
What does abate mean in law?
In legal English, to abate is to reduce or put an end to something officially: a nuisance abatement order requires an offending condition — noise, smoke, a hazard — to be removed. In probate law, legacies abate (are cut down proportionally) when an estate cannot cover them all. Abatement is the standard noun across all these uses.
What is a tax abatement?
A tax abatement is an official reduction of, or temporary exemption from, a tax — cities grant property-tax abatements to attract developers, and penalty abatement wipes out a fine for taxpayers with a clean record. The core meaning survives intact: an amount owed is made to die down.
How do you pronounce abate?
Uh-BAYT (/əˈbeɪt/), with the stress on the second syllable — it rhymes with late and wait. American and British English say it the same way, and the noun abatement simply adds an unstressed ending: uh-BAYT-ment.
What does 'show no sign of abating' mean?
It means the thing is still at full force with no weakening in sight — a journalist's fixed phrase for storms, inflation, demand, criticism. The scene above plays the phrase's opposite ending: the rain finally tires, thins, and hands over its very last drop into an open palm.
What is the noun form of abate?
Abatement — 'noise abatement', 'the abatement of a nuisance', 'penalty abatement'. Outside legal and technical writing it is fairly rare: ordinary prose prefers the verb ('the storm abated') or reaches for 'decline' and 'easing' instead. The -ment noun is your signal that a text is formal.
How do you use abate in a sentence?
Usually intransitively — the thing itself dies down: 'the flooding abated', 'his anger showed no sign of abating'. Formal writing also uses it transitively: 'measures to abate noise pollution'. The subject is typically an overwhelming force or pressure — storms, pain, outrage, demand, even enthusiasm — and the negative survives as its own adjective, unabated: 'the storm raged unabated'.
What is the difference between abate and diminish?
The one-line version: abate is a force dying down, diminish is any size or number shrinking. This word sits in a whole family of easing-and-worsening verbs — each comparison, from abate vs diminish to abate vs exacerbate, has its own page with both animated scenes, linked in the 'Compared' list above.