Definition
ABB appears in historical legal sources only as a fragment or cross-reference artifact, not as a standalone legal term. No independent legal definition is established in the available dictionary record. The Burrill entry associated with this headword contains text belonging to the entry for ABATE or ABATER, specifically Old French and Latin material concerning the king's power to demolish a castle or fortalice as a penalty for trespass and contempt, drawn from the Statute of Westminster I, c. 17, and a Year Book reference to abating a fold. The fragment reads: "Le roy, pur le trespas et pur le despite, face abate le chastell ou le forcelet" — the king, for the trespass and for the contempt, shall cause the castle or fortalice to be demolished.
No legal doctrine, term of art, or procedural concept named ABB is supported by this or any other source in the available record.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A type of yarn used for the warp in weaving; also, rough wool from inferior parts of a fleece used for the woof or weft; a filling pick used in weaving.
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Yarn for the warp in weaving; hence, abb wool is wool prepared for the abb.
The textile term ABB has no recognized legal counterpart. The appearance of ABB as a dictionary headword in Burrill reflects a pagination or indexing artifact rather than any legal usage of the word itself.
Why It Matters in Research
Researchers encountering ABB as a headword in Burrill's Law Dictionary should treat it as a corrupted or misbound entry rather than evidence of a legal term of that name. The substantive content under the headword belongs to ABATE and its Old French cognates (ABATER, ABATEMENT). Attempting to research ABB as an independent legal concept will not yield useful results in any common law corpus.
The textile meaning of ABB, while well-attested in general English dictionaries from the same period, never acquired legal significance. It does not appear in property law, commercial law, or trade regulation contexts as a term of art.
If the underlying subject matter of interest is the sovereign's power to demolish structures as a legal remedy — the actual content misattributed here — researchers should proceed directly to ABATEMENT (as applied to nuisances or structures) and consult the relevant entries in Burrill, Bouvier, and secondary sources on Statute of Westminster I.
Historical Dictionary Support
Burrill's Law Dictionary is the only source in the available record carrying this headword, and the entry is textually incoherent as a standalone definition of ABB. The passage quoted — drawn from Stat. Westm. I, c. 17 and Yearb. P. Edw. III. 48 — is standard supporting material for the entry on ABATE in its sense of demolishing or destroying a structure by royal command. Burrill elsewhere covers this doctrine fully under ABATE and ABATEMENT. No other major historical law dictionary (Bouvier, Black's, Tomlin's, Jacob's) carries ABB as a legal headword. The absence is consistent: there is nothing to define.