abnegate
Americanverb (used with object)
-
abnegates,
present (3rd person singular)
-
abnegated,
past participle, past
-
abnegating
present participle
-
to refuse or deny oneself (some rights, conveniences, etc.); reject; renounce.
-
to relinquish; give up.
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
abnegatesimple
-
abnegatessimple
-
have abnegatedperfect
-
has abnegatedperfect
-
am abnegatingprogressive
-
are abnegatingprogressive
-
is abnegatingprogressive
-
have been abnegatingperfect progressive
-
has been abnegatingperfect progressive
Past
-
abnegatedsimple
-
had abnegatedperfect
-
was abnegatingprogressive
-
were abnegatingprogressive
-
had been abnegatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of abnegate
1650–60; < Latin abnegātus denied (past participle of abnegāre ). See ab-, negate
Explanation
The verb abnegate means to deny or renounce something. Scientists abnegate the existence of little green spacemen from Mars. The verb abnegate also means to surrender a position of power. If you serve on too many committees, you may need to cut back. You could abnegate the treasurer position for P.T.A., in order to have more time to serve as president of Band Boosters. What's the difference between abnegate and abdicate? Both mean to renounce power or authority, but abdicate is usually reserved for higher offices of power. The king abdicates the throne. The CEO, who gives up day-to-day responsibility? He abnegates responsibility.
Vocabulary lists containing abnegate
Here's Looking at Euclid
Looking to grow your vocabulary? Check out this interactive, curated word list from our team of English language specialists at Vocabulary.com – one of over 17,000 lists we've built to help learners worldwide!
On Liberty
Interested in learning more words like this one? Our team at Vocabulary.com has got you covered! You can review flashcards, quiz yourself, practice spelling, and more – and it's all completely free to use!
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“It is not the intention of the Myanmar government to apportion blame or to abnegate responsibility. We condemn all human rights violations and unlawful violence.”
From The Guardian ● Mar. 16, 2018
Yet for true global ruination, many other nations would need to abnegate their moral obligation to protect the planet.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 29, 2017
The compassion for the perpetrator should never abnegate the the requirement for justice to the victim.
From New York Times ● Aug. 22, 2016
She spurns the doctrine that it is woman's position to abnegate and to immolate herself.
From The Salamander by Owen Johnson
Lest I might be supposed to misrepresent, I will quote their own language: "No government can, voluntarily, relinquish its powers, and abnegate its authority without thereby inviting disorder, disquietude, and, in the end, its destruction."
From History and Ecclesiastical Relations of the Churches of the Presbyterial Order at Amoy, China by J. V. N. (John Van Nest) Talmage
Briefly, the nature of Death is to be pallid: therefore Death, in blushing, abnegates his very nature, and almost ceases to be Death.
From Adonais by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Abnegā′tion, renunciation; Ab′negator, one who abnegates or renounces.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 1 of 4: A-D) by Various
I was lifted up into the higher love that worships and abnegates.
From Ghetto Tragedies by Israel Zangwill
It’s too late for a change, Clinton abnegated, but, it’s misleading to readers and could have lasting consequences to not address this.
From New York Times ● Nov. 13, 2016
But to go on that trip, Mort abnegated her parental responsibilities and priorities, behaving in her own, and not her children’s, best interests.
From Slate ● Sep. 29, 2014
Almost every personal luxury and pleasure had been abnegated.
From A Lost Leader by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
The regal authority was thus apparently abnegated; necessity discarding forms, and the safety of the people being the supreme law.
From History of the Colony and Ancient Dominion of Virginia by Charles Campbell
Besides, had she not voluntarily abnegated his authority and affection?
From Selected Stories of Bret Harte by Bret Harte
Historian Theodore Roszak wades into "The Complacencies of the Academy: 1967" with a spirited attack on today's professors for abnegating their traditional responsibility as philosophes.
From Time Magazine Archive
“It’s surely not abnegating common sense just to—to recognize honesty.”
From The Dust Flower by Hibberd V. B. (Hibberd Van Buren) Kline
The Emperor seemed to appreciate perfectly the charms of this angelic woman, whose gentle and self- abnegating character made a profound impression on me.
From Recollections of the Private Life of Napoleon — Volume 05 by Walter Clark
Never abnegating her own proper independence, but always genially preserving it, and what belongs to it—cooking, washing, child-nursing, house-tending—she beams sunshine out of all these duties, and makes them illustrious.
From Complete Prose Works Specimen Days and Collect, November Boughs and Goodbye My Fancy by Walt Whitman
"No, I'll be hanged if I am," protested the abnegating Peckover.
From A Poached Peerage by William Magnay
Random Word
Spin the wheel and learn a new word!
Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
