Strife; contention; retained in make-bate.

To lessen by retrenching, deducting or reducing; as, to bate the wages of the laborer; to bate good cheer.

To grow or become less; to remit or retrench a part; with of. Abate thy speed and I will bate of mine. Spenser uses bate in the sense of sinking, driving in, penetrating; a sense regularly deducible from that of beat, to thrust. Yet there the steel staid not, but inly bate. Deep in the flesh, and open’d wide a red flood gate.