Obs. or arch. [a. OFr. amate-r, and amati-r, f. à to + mater, matir, f. mat dejected, downcast. Obs. bef. 1700, but used by Lytton (as archaic) and Keats.] To dismay, daunt, dishearten, cast down.
c. 1320. Bevis of Hampt. There myght men sorow see Amatud that there had be.
1530. Palsgr., 421 [see also 633]. I amate, I forwery or astonisshe, Jamatte.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 14. All mirth was amated.
a. 1586. Sidney, Ps. cxxix. Terror shall your mindes amate.
1611. Cotgr., Matter, to quell, mate, amate; subdue, pull vnder, take lower.
1642. Charles I., Answ. Declar., 19 May, 3. The great labour and skill hath beene used to amate and afright Our good Subjects.
1693. W. Robertson, Phraseol. Gen., 79. Amate, to discourage or daunt.
a. 1821. Keats, Rem., I. 12 (1848). A half-blown flow’ret which cold blasts amate.
1843. Lytton, Last of Bar., II. iii. 136. It amates me much,… that thou leavest the court in this juncture.
