ABET • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Abet

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

Listen

verb

Abet v. t. (past & past part. abetted; pres. part. abetting)

To instigate or encourage by aid or countenance; used in a bad sense of persons and acts; as, to abet an ill-doer; to abet one in his wicked courses; to abet vice; to abet an insurrection. "The whole tribe abets the villany." "Would not the fool abet the stealth, Who rashly thus exposed his wealth?"

To support, uphold, or aid; to maintain; in a good sense. (Obs.). "Our duty is urged, and our confidence abetted."

(Law) To contribute, as an assistant or instigator, to the commission of an offense.

Synonyms: To incite; instigate; set on; egg on; foment; advocate; countenance; encourage; second; uphold; aid; assist; support; sustain; back; connive at.

See images of 'Abet'

Etymology of 'Abet'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Abet" Quotes from Famous Books

... the parts, which must be so represented as not to interfere with that general idea, and which may be altogether in the mind of the artist. This little discussion seems to arise from a sort of quibble on the word important. Sir Joshua and others, who abet the generality maxim, mean no more than that it is of importance to a picture that it contain, fully expressed, one general idea, with which no parts are to interfere, but that the parts will interfere if each part be represented with its most particular truth—and that, ...

— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXXVI. October, 1843. Vol. LIV. • Various

Words linked to "Abet" : abetter, abetment, abettor, assist, abettal