abet
v.v. to help someone do something illegal or wrong. You use this when you are not the main person doing the crime, but you encourage or support them.
v. to encourage, support, or assist in the commission of a crime or wrongdoing. Often used in legal contexts to describe secondary liability.
He was arrested for abetting the robbery.
The lawyer argued that his client was merely abetting the crime by providing a safe house, not by committing it himself.
While the mastermind planned the heist, his accomplices were charged with abetting the crime by supplying the necessary equipment and acting as lookouts.
From Middle English abetten, abette, from Old French abeter (“to entice”), from a- (“to”) + beter (“hound on, urge, to bait”), either from Middle Dutch bētan (“incite”) or from Old Norse beita (“to cause to bite, bait, incite”), from Proto-Germanic baitijaną (“to cause to bite”), from Proto-Indo-European bʰeyd- (“to split”). Cognate with Icelandic beita (“to set dogs on; to feed”). Alternate etymology traces the Middle English and Old French words through Old English ābǣtan (“to hound on”), from ā- + bǣtan (“to bait”), from the same source (Proto-Germanic baitijaną). See also bait, bet.