Make-debate
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Someone who instigates quarrels. obsolete
"I will now pursue the Subject, and put the Case that you have no Proof that he is guilty, but your Surmizes, or, perhaps, the busy Whisperings of officious Make-debates. In this Case, take care, my Betsey, that you don't, by the Violence of your Passions, precipitate him on the Course you dread, and that you alienate not, by unjust Suspicions, his Affections from you; for then perhaps he will be ready indeed to place them somewhere else, where you may not so easily draw him off; for he will, may be, think, as to you (if he be devoid of superior Considerations) that he may as well deserve your Suspicions, as be tiezed with them without deserving them."
Example
More examples"I will now pursue the Subject, and put the Case that you have no Proof that he is guilty, but your Surmizes, or, perhaps, the busy Whisperings of officious Make-debates. In this Case, take care, my Betsey, that you don't, by the Violence of your Passions, precipitate him on the Course you dread, and that you alienate not, by unjust Suspicions, his Affections from you; for then perhaps he will be ready indeed to place them somewhere else, where you may not so easily draw him off; for he will, may be, think, as to you (if he be devoid of superior Considerations) that he may as well deserve your Suspicions, as be tiezed with them without deserving them."
Etymology
From make + debate.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.