abattre

French

Etymology

Inherited from Middle French abattre, from Old French abatre, from Late Latin abbattere, from Latin battere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.batʁ/

• audio

  (file)

Verb

abattre

1. to butcher; to slaughter for meat
2. to shoot dead
3. to cut down (a tree)
4. to destroy or demolish (a wall)
5. (reflexive) to fall down, especially of tall things, such as trees
6. (takes a reflexive pronoun) to descend upon with violence or furor
   • 2021 December 16, Cécile Ducourtieux, “Au Royaume-Uni, la progression d’Omicron est « stupéfiante, jamais observée jusqu’à présent »”, in Le Monde‎:

     « Fulgurante », « phénoménale » ou « stupéfiante » : les conseillers scientifiques du gouvernement britannique n’ont pas de mots assez forts pour qualifier la vague Omicron qui s’abat sur le Royaume-Uni.

     "Striking", "phenomenal", or "stupefying": the scientific advisers to the British government do not have words strong enough to describe the Omicron wave which descending upon the United Kingdom.

7. (takes a reflexive pronoun, of lightning) to strike

Conjugation

This verb is conjugated like battre. That means it is conjugated like vendre, perdre, etc. (sometimes called the regular -re verbs), except that instead of *abatt and *abatts, it has the forms abat and abats. This is strictly a spelling change; pronunciation-wise, the verb is conjugated exactly like vendre.

Derived terms

Related terms

• battre

Further reading

• “abattre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé , 2012.

Anagrams

• baratte, ébattra, rabatte

Norman

Alternative forms

• abat

Etymology

From Old French abatre, from Late Latin abbattere, from Latin battere.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /a.batr/

Verb

abattre

1. (Jersey) to knock down

References

• Spence, N.C.W. (1960). Glossary of Jersey-French. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 39.