Abatement

1. n. The entry of a stranger, without right, into a freehold after the death of the last possessor, before the heir or devisee.
2. n. The act of abating, or the state of being abated; a lessening, diminution, or reduction; removal or putting an end to; as, the abatement of a nuisance is the suppression thereof.
3. n. The amount abated; that which is taken away by way of reduction; deduction; decrease; a rebate or discount allowed.
4. n. A mark of dishonor on an escutcheon.

The word meanings were obtained from OPTED(The Online Plain Text English Dictionary), which is based on “The Project Gutenberg Etext of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary” which is in turn based on the 1913 US Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (See Project Gutenburg), as a text file.