Noah Webster
Bate
BATE, noun [It is probably from the root of beat. See Debate.]
Strife; contention; retained in make-bate.
BATE, verb transitive [The literal sense is, to beat, strike, thrust; to force down. See Beat.]
To lessen by retrenching, deducting or reducing; as, to bate the wages of the laborer; to bate good cheer. [We now use abate.]
BATE, verb intransitive 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.