Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To approve, encourage, and support (an action or a plan of action); urge and help on.
- transitive verb To urge, encourage, or help (a person).
from The Century Dictionary.
- To encourage by aid or approval: used with a personal object, and chiefly in a bad sense.
- To maintain; support; uphold.
- In law, to encourage, counsel, incite, or assist in a criminal act — implying, in the case of felony, personal presence.
- Hence To lead to or encourage the commission of.
- Synonyms To support, encourage, second, countenance, aid, assist, back, connive at, stand by, further.
- noun The act of aiding or encouraging, especially in a crime.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete Act of abetting; aid.
- transitive verb To instigate or encourage by aid or countenance; -- used in a bad sense of persons and acts
- transitive verb obsolete To support, uphold, or aid; to maintain; -- in a good sense.
- transitive verb (Law) To contribute, as an assistant or instigator, to the commission of an offense.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb obsolete To back up one's forecast of a doubtful issue, by staking money, etc., to
bet .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb assist or encourage, usually in some wrongdoing
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
Support
Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word abet.
Examples
-
The proposed five-year sentence for those who "abet" a same-sex relationship is greater than the punishment stipulated in the bill for those who enter into a "same gender marriage."
-
The proposed five-year sentence for those who "abet" a same-sex relationship is greater than the punishment stipulated in the bill for those who enter into a "same gender marriage."
-
* The proposed five-year sentence for those who "abet" a same-sex relationship is greater than the punishment stipulated in the bill for those who enter into a "same gender marriage."
YubaNet.com 2009
-
The proposed five-year sentence for those who "abet" a same-sex relationship is greater than the punishment stipulated in the bill for those who enter into a "same gender marriage."
-
And the very first item is talking about how the Army is aiding and abetting (did you catch their use of the word "abet"?
05/23/2004 2004
-
"It will likely mark a turning point in the government's effort to pursue those who aid and abet organized crime and mark a new low for public trust in the government's ability to address the problem."
Controversial Mexican Politician Freed on Weapons Charges José de Córdoba 2011
-
Thus, the President argued a limited moral case for the merits of the war, a projection of force in self-defense against those who would harbor, aid, and abet those who attacked us.
-
But a vote for him will aid and abet a Democratic leadership that's hell bent on an expansion of government that's a radical departure from the nation's bedrock principles and ruinous in its economic implications.
-
They aid and abet, with tax money from our government.
-
We've looked at every civilian assistance program and contract and we've said, 'look, we're not going to just aid and abet bad behavior.'
State of the Union: John King's Crib Sheet for December 6 2009
shanvrolijk commented on the word abet
This is what we get for abetting supernaturalism in defense of tradition. Ah, well, at least we're respected.
http://www.3quarksdaily.com/3quarksdaily/2018/01/kurt-andersen-how-religion-turned-american-politics-against-science.html
January 27, 2018