ABATEMENT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does abatement mean? 

• ABATEMENT (noun)
  The noun ABATEMENT has 2 senses:

1. an interruption in the intensity or amount of something

2. the act of abating

  Familiarity information: ABATEMENT used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ABATEMENT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

An interruption in the intensity or amount of something

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

abatement; hiatus; reprieve; respite; suspension

Hypernyms ("abatement" is a kind of...):

break; interruption (some abrupt occurrence that interrupts an ongoing activity)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "abatement"):

defervescence (abatement of a fever as indicated by a reduction in body temperature)

remission; remittal; subsidence (an abatement in intensity or degree (as in the manifestations of a disease))

Derivation:

abate (become less in amount or intensity)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of abating

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

laws enforcing noise abatement

Hypernyms ("abatement" is a kind of...):

mitigation; moderation (the action of lessening in severity or intensity)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "abatement"):

abatement of a nuisance; nuisance abatement ((law) the removal or termination or destruction of something that has been found to be a nuisance)

 Context examples 

Still, there was no abatement in the storm, but it blew harder.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Already the thrusts were less fierce, the foot less ready, although there was no abatement of the spirit in the steady gray eyes.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The morrow produced no abatement of Mrs. Bennet's ill-humour or ill health.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

The evening wore away with no abatement of this soothing politeness; and her spirits were gradually raised to a modest tranquillity.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

The next morning produced no abatement in these happy symptoms.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Her dejection had no abatement from anything passing around her; a friend or two of her father's, as always happened if he was not with them, spent the long, long evening there; and from six o'clock till half-past nine, there was little intermission of noise or grog.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

He hath by rote the name of every knight of France or of England; and all the tree of his family, with his kinships, coat-armor, marriages, augmentations, abatements, and I know not what beside.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)