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✋ To hold back 🧴 To soften hides 🦅 To flap wings
to bate

to bate

9.9
To beat the wings wildly when a hawk or falcon is held
  • verb
  • /beɪt/
  • Archaic
translation icon : batir
  • The falcon began to bate its wings wildly when it sensed the hunter nearby.

Examples

  • I lay clutching Skava's jesses as she bated, while the last clattering rivulets of rock played themselves out.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • As the bird was held tightly, it started to bate, flapping its wings in frustration.

  • Skava gave a cry, bated off my wrist, and kept on pumping her wings.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Or shall I bend low and, in a slavish voice, with bated breath and whispering humbleness say this -

    The Merchant of Venice (2004)

  • When the falcon was released from its perch, it bated for a moment before soaring into the sky.

How Frantic

to bate
  • Archaic
9.9
to thrash
24 5.8
to flap
54 1.4
to flutter
35 3.5

Surface Forms

bate infinitive
bate past
bate past participle
bating present participle
bates third person singular

Etymology

The word bate, used in falconry, comes from an old word meaning 'to beat', just like the common word beat, and it pictures a bird beating its wings when it struggles. That's why a hawk that 'bates' is flapping and trying to get free.