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Ate

[ey-tee, ah-tee]
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noun
  1. an ancient Greek goddess personifying the fatal blindness or recklessness that produces crime and the divine punishment that follows it.
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Origin of Ate

< Greek, special use of átē reckless impulse, ruin, akin to aáein to mislead, harm
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for ates

Historical Examples

  • The Gardener: "'Cause I 'ates the sight of the blooming thing."

    Jokes For All Occasions

    Anonymous

  • Which she will be some day, said cook; and I ates to think of it.

  • Can't you wait till he ates a thrifle o' some-thin' stout, to keep life in him, afther his hard journey?

    The Poor Scholar

    William Carleton

  • We don't work for it; it's the bread of shame and idleness: and yet it's Owen M'Carthy that ates it!

  • "I 'ates them as gives themselves airs in other people's 'ouses," had been Sims' verdict on the nurse.

    I Walked in Arden

    Jack Crawford

British Dictionary definitions for ates

ate

verb
  1. the past tense of eat
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Ate

noun
  1. Greek myth a goddess who makes men blind so that they will blunder into guilty acts
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Word Origin

C16: via Latin from Greek atē a rash impulse
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for ates

ate

past tense of eat (q.v.).

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Ate

Greek goddess of infatuation and evil, from ate "infatuation, bane, ruin, mischief," of uncertain origin.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper