Obs. Forms: 4–7 bate; also 4–5 bat, 5 batte, 6 baate, bayte. [f. BATE v.1; or directly shortened from DEBATE sb.]
1. Contention, strife, discord.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 9684. Bituix mi sisteris es þe bate [Cotton MS. debat].
a. 1400. Cov. Myst. (1841), 12. Cryst that lovyd not stryff nor bat.
1569. Spenser, Sonnets, viii. Ciuile bate Made me the spoile and bootie of the world.
1690. Shadwell, Am. Bigot, I. i. I’ll breed no bate nor division between young people.
b. At (the) bate: at strife, contending, fighting.
a. 1500. E. E. Misc. (1855), 64. Thowth men be now at the batte, They may be frendys anodyre day.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., XX. v. Was never man yet surely at the bayte Wyth Sapyence, but that he dyd repent.
1623. Sir J. Stradling, in Farr’s S. P., 233. A man within himself may be at bate.
2. Comb., as bate-breeding, -maker, -making.
1533. More, Debell. Salem, Wks. 963/1. Hys bate making booke.
a. 1564. Becon, Christ & Antichr. (1844), 517. Antichrist is our disturber, bate-maker, and destroyer.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., cx. This sour informer, this bate-breeding spy.
1646. Vox Populi, Pref. And our Peace-preachers turnes our Bate-makers.
¶ With the following cf. BAIT sb.1 III, BATE v.1 2.
c. 1340. Gaw. & Gr. Knt., 1461. Þen, brayn-wod for bate on burnez he [the boar] rasez.
1627. Feltham, Resolves, II. xi. Wks. 181. The Bates and Flutterings of a Conscience within.
