bate vs flourish

bate

verb
  • To contend or strive with blows or arguments. 

  • To deprive of. 

  • To restrain, usually with the sense of being in anticipation 

  • To soak leather so as to remove chemicals used in tanning; to steep in bate. 

  • To masturbate. 

  • To waste away. 

  • To allow by way of abatement or deduction. 

  • To reduce the force of something; to abate. 

  • To cut off, remove, take away. 

  • To lessen by retrenching, deducting, or reducing; to abate; to beat down; to lower. 

  • Of a falcon: To flap the wings vigorously; to bait. 

noun
  • Strife; contention. 

  • An alkaline lye which neutralizes the effect of the previous application of lime, and makes hides supple in the process of tanning. 

  • A vat which contains this liquid. 

flourish

verb
  • To prosper or fare well. 

  • To thrive or grow well. 

  • To make bold and sweeping, fanciful, or wanton movements, by way of ornament, parade, bravado, etc.; to play with fantastic and irregular motion. 

  • To make bold, sweeping movements with. 

  • To be in a period of greatest influence. 

  • To adorn with beautiful figures or rhetoric; to ornament with anything showy; to embellish. 

  • To use florid language; to indulge in rhetorical figures and lofty expressions. 

  • To execute an irregular or fanciful strain of music, by way of ornament or prelude. 

  • To make ornamental strokes with the pen; to write graceful, decorative figures. 

  • To develop; to make thrive; to expand. 

noun
  • A ceremonious passage such as a fanfare. 

  • An ornamentation. 

  • A dramatic gesture such as the waving of a flag. 

  • A decorative embellishment on a building. 

How often have the words bate and flourish occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )