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Ate

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

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 of ates

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

  • 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

Ate

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

Word Origin for Ate

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.).

Ate

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

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper