abandon

See also: Abandon and a bandon

English

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Verb

abandon (third-person singular simple present abandons, present participle abandoning, simple past and past participle abandoned)

  1. (transitive, obsolete) To subdue; to take control of. [Attested from around (1350 to 1470) until the mid 16th century.][1]
  2. (transitive) To give up or relinquish control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions. [First attested from around (1350 to 1470)][1]
    • (Can we date this quote?), Macaulay, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
      He abandoned himself […] to his favourite vice.
  3. (transitive) To desist in doing, practicing, following, holding, or adhering to; to turn away from; to permit to lapse; to renounce; to discontinue. [First attested from around (1350 to 1470)][1]
    • 2013 May 17, George Monbiot, “Money just makes the rich suffer”, in The Guardian Weekly‎, volume 188, number 23, page 19:
      In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […]   The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra–wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.
  4. (transitive) To leave behind; to desert as in a ship or a position, typically in response to overwhelming odds or impending dangers; to forsake, in spite of a duty or responsibility. [First attested in the late 15th century.][1]
    • (Can we date this quote?), I. Taylor, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
      Hope was overthrown, yet could not be abandoned.
    Many baby girls have been abandoned on the streets of Beijing.
  5. (transitive, obsolete) To cast out; to banish; to expel; to reject. [Attested from the mid 16th century until the mid 17th century.][1]
    • 1594, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew, act I, scene ii:
      Being all this time abandoned from your bed.
    • (Can we date this quote?), Udall, (Please provide the book title or journal name):
      that he might […] abandon them from him
  6. (transitive) To no longer exercise a right, title, or interest, especially with no interest of reclaiming it again; to yield; to relinquish. [First attested in the mid 18th century.][1]
  7. (transitive) To surrender to the insurer (an insured item), so as to claim a total loss.
Conjugation
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Etymology 2

Noun

abandon (plural abandons)

  1. A yielding to natural impulses or inhibitions; freedom from artificial constraint, with loss of appreciation of consequences. [Early 19th century.][1][3]
    • 1954, Gore Vidal, Messiah:
      I envy those chroniclers who assert with reckless but sincere abandon: 'I was there. I saw it happen. It happened thus.'
    • 2007 November 4, David M. Halbfinger, “The City That Never Sleeps, Comatose”, in The New York Times‎:
      They needed to have an abandon in their performance that you just can’t get out of people in the middle of the night when they’re barefoot.
  2. (obsolete) abandonment; relinquishment.
Synonyms
Translations
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Adverb

abandon (comparative more abandon, superlative most abandon)

  1. (obsolete, not comparable) Freely; entirely.
    • 1330, Arthour and Merlin:
      His ribbes and scholder fel adoun,/Men might se the liver abandoun.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Lesley Brown (editor), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition (Oxford University Press, 2003 [1933], →ISBN), page 2
  2. ↑ “abandon” in Christine A. Lindberg, editor, The Oxford College Dictionary, 2nd edition, New York, N.Y.: Spark Publishing, 2002, →ISBN, page 1.
  3. ↑ Elliott K. Dobbie, C. William Dunmore, Robert K. Barnhart, et al. (editors), Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2004 [1998], →ISBN), page 2.

French

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /a.bɑ̃.dɔ̃/
  • (France, Paris)(file)
  • Rhymes: -dɔ̃

Noun

abandon m (plural abandons)

  1. surrender
  2. abandonment
  3. (uncountable) complete neglect

Derived terms

Further reading

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French abandon.

Noun

abandon n (plural abandonuri)

  1. abandonment
  2. renouncement

Declension

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