abet
Other forms: abetted; abetting; abets
To abet is to help someone do something, usually something wrong. If you were the lookout while your older sister swiped cookies from the cookie jar, you abetted her mischief.
The verb abet can be used to generally mean encouragement, but people usually expect to see it in relation to some crime. "The singer was abetted by a pianist in her rendition of Silver Bells," for example, is a harmless construction. However, people more often expect abet in a sentence like this: "She was charged with aiding and abetting the burglar because she drove the getaway car." Abet comes from an Old French word abeter meaning "to bait."
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assist or encourage, usually in some wrongdoingtype of:assistact as an assistant in a subordinate or supportive function
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Vocabulary lists containing abet
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After defying her uncle, the king of Thebes, Antigone is sentenced to death. This classical tragedy, translated from the Greek by Francis Storr, explores the tension between duty and family.
Originally published as "On the Duty of Disobedience" and based on an 1848 lecture, Thoreau's work is a civil libertarian classic. Questioning the authority of all governments, Thoreau especially challenges both the right of the state to tax him and the morality of a government that allows slavery. Read the full text here.