abandon
verbnouncommon in dialogue
- United Kingdom//əˈban.dən//
- Australia//əˈbæn.dən//
- New Zealand//əˈbɛn.dən//
To give up or relinquish control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions.
verb
- 1
To give up or relinquish control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions.
[…] he abandoned himself […] to his favourite vice.
- 2
To desist in doing, practicing, following, holding, or adhering to; to turn away from; to permit to lapse; to renounce; to discontinue.
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.
- 3
To leave behind; to desert, as in a ship, a position, or a person, typically in response to overwhelming odds or impending dangers; to forsake, in spite of a duty or responsibility.
Many baby girls have been abandoned on the streets of Beijing.
He was abandoned on the island with no one to help him.
She abandoned her husband for a new man.
Hope was overthrown, and yet could not be abandoned.
- 4
obsoleteTo subdue; to take control of.
- 5
obsoleteTo cast out; to banish; to expel; to reject.
Being all this time abandoned from your bed.
- 6
To no longer exercise a right, title, or interest, especially with no interest of reclaiming it again; to yield; to relinquish.
I hereby abandon my position as manager.
- 7
To surrender to the insurer (an insured item), so as to claim a total loss.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Latin ad Old French a Proto-Germanic *bannanąder. Frankish *bannder. Old French ban Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- Proto-Indo-European *-r̥ Proto-Indo-European *dóh₃r̥ ~ *déh₃n̥s Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Indo-European *déh₃nom Proto-Italic *dōnom Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Proto-Italic *dōnāō? Latin donāre Old French doner Old French a ban doner Old French abandonerder. Middle English abandounen English abandon From Middle English abandounen, from Old French abandoner, formed from a (“at, to”) + bandon (“jurisdiction, control”), from Late Latin bannum (“proclamation”), bannus, bandum, from Frankish *ban, *bann, from Proto-Germanic *bannaną (“to proclaim, command”) (whence English ban), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to speak”). See also ban, banal. Displaced Middle English forleten (“to abandon”), from Old English forlǣtan, anforlǣtan; see forlet; and Middle English forleven (“to leave behind, abandon”), from Old English forlǣfan; see forleave. Compare typologically abdicate, Russian отказа́ться (otkazátʹsja) (akin to приказа́ть (prikazátʹ), сказа́ть (skazátʹ), указа́ть (ukazátʹ)).
noun
- 1
A yielding to natural impulses or inhibitions; freedom from artificial constraint, with loss of appreciation of consequences. (Now especially in the phrase with abandon.)
with gay abandon, with wild abandon, with reckless abandon
The Italian painters have an abandon in their chiar' oscuro which mellows up their flesh tints in a way that no other school can imitate : the frigidity of their outline is another remarkable feature, and the harmony of their impasto is unique.
I envy those chroniclers who assert with reckless but sincere abandon: 'I was there. I saw it happen. It happened thus.'
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
obsoleteAbandonment; relinquishment.
Etymology
From Middle English abandoun, from Old French abandon, from Old French abondonner.
Forms
- plural
- abandons
- past tense
- abandoned
- past participle
- abandoned
- present participle
- abandoning
- third person singular
- abandons
abandon · To give up or relinquish control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions.
abandoned · Having given oneself up to vice; immoral; extremely wicked,…abandoning · An act by which something or someone is abandoned;…abba · Father; religious superior; in the Syriac, Coptic, and…