abject

[ ab-jekt, ab-jekt ]
See synonyms for abject on Thesaurus.com
adjective
  1. utterly hopeless, miserable, humiliating, or wretched: abject poverty.

  2. contemptible; despicable; base-spirited: an abject coward.

  1. shamelessly servile; slavish.

  2. Obsolete. cast aside.

Origin of abject

1
1400–50; late Middle English <Latin abjectus thrown down (past participle of abicere, abjicere), equivalent to ab-ab- + -jec- throw + -tus past participle suffix

Other words for abject

Opposites for abject

Other words from abject

  • ab·ject·ly, adverb
  • ab·ject·ness, ab·ject·ed·ness, noun
  • un·ab·ject, adjective
  • un·ab·ject·ly, adverb
  • un·ab·ject·ness, noun

Words that may be confused with abject

Words Nearby abject

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use abject in a sentence

  • A more abject, humiliated man than I stand at this hour in my own eyes never yet took his sins upon his soul.

    Elster's Folly | Mrs. Henry Wood
  • The energetic, the daring, the high-spirited go, leaving the residue more abject and nerveless than ever.

    Glances at Europe | Horace Greeley
  • In Scotland, even a beggar has none of those abject manners that denote his class elsewhere.

    Friend Mac Donald | Max O'Rell
  • Meanwhile a sullen and abject melancholy took possession of his soul.

  • In the latter part of his reign, however, the Emperor passed under the dominion of the most abject superstition.

    The Catacombs of Rome | William Henry Withrow

British Dictionary definitions for abject

abject

/ (ˈæbdʒɛkt) /


adjective
  1. utterly wretched or hopeless

  2. miserable; forlorn; dejected

  1. indicating humiliation; submissive: an abject apology

  2. contemptible; despicable; servile: an abject liar

Origin of abject

1
C14: (in the sense: rejected, cast out): from Latin abjectus thrown or cast away, from abjicere, from ab- away + jacere to throw

Derived forms of abject

  • abjection, noun
  • abjectly, adverb
  • abjectness, noun

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012