What is the difference between blunt and abate?
blunt | abate |
Having a thick edge or point, as an instrument; not sharp.
* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*{{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)
, title= * {{quote-book, year=1963, author=(Margery Allingham), title=(The China Governess)
, chapter=17 Dull in understanding; slow of discernment; opposed to acute.
* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
Abrupt in address; plain; unceremonious; wanting the forms of civility; rough in manners or speech.
* (William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
Hard to impress or penetrate.
* (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
Slow or deficient in feeling: insensitive.
A fencer's practice foil with a soft tip.
A short needle with a strong point.
(smoking) A marijuana cigar.
* 2005': to make his point, lead rapper B-Real fired up a '''blunt in front of the cameras and several hundred thousand people and announced, “I'm taking a hit for every one of y'all!” — Martin Torgoff, ''Can't Find My Way Home (Simon & Schuster 2005, p. 461)
(UK, slang, archaic, uncountable) money
* Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers
A playboating move resembling a cartwheel performed on a wave.
To dull the edge or point of, by making it thicker; to make blunt.
(figuratively) To repress or weaken, as any appetite, desire, or power of the mind; to impair the force, keenness, or susceptibility, of; as, to blunt the feelings.
* {{quote-news, year=2011
, date=January 12
, author=Saj Chowdhury
, title=Liverpool 2 - 1 Liverpool
, work=BBC
(transitive, obsolete, outside, legal) To put an end to; to cause to cease.
To become null and void.
(legal) To nullify; make void.
(obsolete) To humble; to lower in status; to bring someone down physically or mentally.
*
(obsolete) To be humbled; to be brought down physically or mentally.
(obsolete) To curtail; to deprive.
* 1605 , , King Lear , II.ii:
To reduce in amount, size, or value.
*
To decrease in size, value, or amount.
To moderate; to lessen in force, intensity, to subside.
* 1597 , , [http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/575 Essays or Counsels, Civil and Morall] :
* 1855 , , History of England from the Accession of James II, Part 3 , [http://books.google.com/books?id=MN5CNdgbSTYC&pg=PA267 page 267]:
To decrease in intensity or force; to subside.
* :
To deduct or omit.
* 1845 , , The Church History of Britain , Volume 3, [http://books.google.com/books?id=OfefAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA100 page 100]:
To bar or except.
*
To cut away or hammer down, in such a way as to leave a figure in relief, as a sculpture, or in metalwork.
(obsolete) To dull the edge or point of; to blunt.
(archaic) To destroy, or level to the ground.
* 1542 , , The Union of the Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and York :
(legal) To enter a tenement without permission after the owner has died and before the heir takes possession.
----
As nouns the difference between blunt and abate
is that blunt is a fencer's practice foil with a soft tip while abate is {{context|obsolete|lang=en}} abatement {{defdate|attested from around (1350 to 1470) until the late 17th century}}{{reference-book | last =| first = | authorlink = | coauthors = | editor =brown, lesley | others = | title = the shorter oxford english dictionary | origdate = | origyear = 1933| origmonth = | url = | format = | accessdate = | accessyear = | accessmonth = | edition = 5th | date = | year =2003| month = | publisher =oxford university press | location =oxford, uk | language = | id = | doi = | isbn =978-0-19-860575-7 | lccn = | ol = | pages =2| chapter = | chapterurl = | quote =}} or abate can be an italian abbot, or other member of the clergy {{defdate|first attested in the early 18th century}}.As verbs the difference between blunt and abate
is that blunt is to dull the edge or point of, by making it thicker; to make blunt while abate is {{context|transitive|obsolete|lang=en}} to put an end to; to cause to cease {{defdate|first attested from around (1150 to 1350)}} or abate can be {{context|intransitive|legal|lang=en}} to enter a tenement without permission after the owner has died and before the heir takes possession {{defdate|first attested around 1350 to 1470}}.As a adjective blunt
is having a thick edge or point, as an instrument; not sharp.blunt
English
Adjective
(er)- The murderous knife was dull and blunt .
The Three Corpse Trick, section=chapter 5 , passage=The dinghy was trailing astern at the end of its painter, and Merrion looked at it as he passed. He saw that it was a battered-looking affair of the prahm type, with a blunt snout, and like the parent ship, had recently been painted a vivid green.}}
citation, passage=The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […].}}
- His wits are not so blunt .
- the blunt admission that he had never liked my company
- a plain, blunt man
- I find my heart hardened and blunt to new impressions.
Synonyms
* (having a thick edge or point) dull, pointless, coarse * (dull in understanding) stupid, obtuse * (abrupt in address) curt, short, rude, brusque, impolite, uncivil, harshDerived terms
* blunt instrument * bluntly * bluntnessNoun
(en noun)- Down he goes to the Commons, to see the lawyer and draw the blunt
Verb
(en verb)citation, page= , passage=That settled the Merseysiders for a short while but it did not blunt the home side's spirit. }}
See also
* bluntly * dull ----abate
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) abaten, from (etyl) . Cognate to modern French abattre .Verb
(abat)- to abate a nuisance
- The writ has abated .
- to abate a writ
- The hyer that they were in this present lyf, the moore shulle they be abated and defouled in helle.
- Order restrictions and prohibitions to abate an emergency situation.
- She hath abated me of half my train.
- Legacies are liable to be abated entirely or in proportion, upon a deficiency of assets.
- His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated .
- Not that they feel it so, but only to abate the edge of envy.
- The fury of Glengarry rapidly abated .
- We will abate this price from the total.
- Allowing nine thousand parishes (abating the odd hundreds) in England and Wales
- Abating his brutality, he was a very good master.
- The kynge of Scottes planted his siege before the castell of Norham, and sore abated the walls.
