aid and abet

present singular third person aids and abets · participle present aiding and abetting · participle past aided and abetted · past aided and abetted

1. transitivelawTo assist (someone) in an illegal act as an accessory or accomplice.

   A bank employee was accused of aiding and abetting the gang of robbers.

   4 more examples

   In my future letters I shall perhaps take the opportunity to prove to you that the more men there are in a state, the more prosperous its commerce; I shall prove as easily, that as commerce flourishes, men increase; these two things necessarily aid and abet each other.

   [1892], [Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de La Brède et de] Montesquieu, “Letter CXVI: Usbek to the Same [Rhedi]”, in John Davidson, transl., Persian Letters, London: George Routledge & Sons; New York, N.Y.: E[dward] P[ayson] Dutton & Co., →OCLC, page 259

   What oppressed Jude was the thought that, having done a wrong thing of this sort himself, he was aiding and abetting the woman he loved in doing a like wrong thing, instead of imploring and warning her against it.

   1894 December – 1895 November, Thomas Hardy, chapter VII, in Jude the Obscure, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, […], published 1896, →OCLC, part III (At Melchester), page 202

   Caught, red-handed, on the spot, in the very act of aiding and abetting the traitors against the Republic of France, the Englishman could claim no protection from his own country.

   1905 January 12, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “On the Track”, in The Scarlet Pimpernel, popular edition, London: Greening & Co., published 20 March 1912, →OCLC, page 261

   Moreover, "the superstitious" Fryer Lawrence—a figure of no higher moral standing than a "dronken gossyppe"—wilfully aids and abets the lovers [Romeo and Juliet] in their perfidious course of action, using the secret, even occultist, rituals of the Catholic Church to achieve his perverse ends.

   2009, David Salter, “Shakespeare and Catholicism: The Franciscan Connection”, in William Shakespeare, edited by Harold Bloom, William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (Bloom’s Modern Critical Interpretations), new edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloom’s Literary Criticism, Infobase Publishing, →ISBN, page 66

2. transitivelawTo assist someone in (an illegal act) as an accessory or accomplice.

   Murder itself was not more sternly and certainly punished in the State of Maryland, than that of aiding and abetting the escape of a slave.

   1881, Frederick Douglass, “Escape from Slavery”, in Life and Times of Frederick Douglass, […], Hartford, Conn.: Park Publishing Co., →OCLC, part II, page 196

3. intransitivelawTo be an accessory or accomplice to someone in an illegal act.

   From about April 13 to about May 17, 1962, registrant, during a time when it was undergoing a change in ownership and management, together with or aided and abetted by Smythe, willfully violated Section 17(a) of the Securities Act of 1933 […]

   1964 May 11, In the Matter of SMYTHE, BOWERS, HILLIARD & CO., INC. […] File No. 8-8735: Findings and Opinion of the Commission (Securities Exchange Act Release; no. 7312), Washington, D.C.: Securities and Exchange Commission, page 1