abandon1
[uh-ban-duh n]
- to leave completely and finally; forsake utterly; desert: to abandon one's farm; to abandon a child; to abandon a sinking ship.
- to give up; discontinue; withdraw from: to abandon a research project; to abandon hopes for a stage career.
- to give up the control of: to abandon a city to an enemy army.
- to yield (oneself) without restraint or moderation; give (oneself) over to natural impulses, usually without self-control: to abandon oneself to grief.
- Law. to cast away, leave, or desert, as property or a child.
- Insurance. to relinquish (insured property) to the underwriter in case of partial loss, thus enabling the insured to claim a total loss.
- Obsolete. to banish.
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Origin of abandon1
Synonyms
See more synonyms for abandon on Thesaurus.com3. yield, surrender, resign, waive, abdicate.
Synonym study
1. See desert2. 2. Abandon, relinquish, renounce mean to give up all concern in something. Abandon means to give up or discontinue any further interest in something because of discouragement, weariness, distaste, or the like: to abandon one's efforts. Relinquish implies being or feeling compelled to give up something one would prefer to keep: to relinquish a long-cherished desire. Renounce implies making (and perhaps formally stating) a voluntary decision to give something up: to renounce worldly pleasures.
Antonyms
1. keep. 2. continue; begin, start. 3. retain.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for abandoning
Contemporary Examples
Secondly, as GBCE reports, it puts the kids themselves at a higher risk of dropping out of school, or abandoning it all together.
She grew up believing her biological mother had died after abandoning her as a baby.
But having your sound influenced by a genre and abandoning your sound completely are two different things.
The prime minister also ordered that the general and his immediate subordinates face criminal charges for abandoning their posts.
Online there are pictures of Iraqi soldiers shedding their uniforms and abandoning their posts.
Historical Examples
He had been bothered by no fine qualms about abandoning herself.
DustMr. and Mrs. Haldeman-Julius
So she made no objection to his abandoning his desk in the house of Dunbar, Dunbar, and Balderby.
Henry DunbarM. E. Braddon
"It's never a day for abandoning what has been dear to one," replied Florence.
The Mystery of Murray DavenportRobert Neilson Stephens
They had no thought of abandoning any of their pursuits or pleasures, be they never so deplorable.
The Law-BreakersRidgwell Cullum
For a moment that seemed like treachery, like an abandoning of Hermione.
A Spirit in PrisonRobert Hichens
abandon
- to forsake completely; desert; leave behindto abandon a baby; drivers had to abandon their cars
- abandon ship the order given to the crew of a ship that is about to sink to take to the lifeboats
- to give up completelyto abandon a habit; to abandon hope
- to yield control of or concern in; relinquishto abandon office
- to give up (something begun) before completionto abandon a job; the game was abandoned
- to surrender (oneself) to emotion without restraint
- to give (insured property that has suffered partial loss or damage) to the insurers in order that a claim for a total loss may be made
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- freedom from inhibitions, restraint, concern, or worryshe danced with abandon
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Word Origin
C14: abandounen (vb), from Old French, from a bandon under one's control, in one's power, from a at, to + bandon control, power
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for abandoning
abandon
v.
late 14c., "to give up, surrender (oneself or something), give over utterly; to yield (oneself) utterly (to religion, fornication, etc.)," from Old French abandoner (12c.), from adverbial phrase à bandon "at will, at discretion," from à "at, to" (see ad-) + bandon "power, jurisdiction," from Latin bannum, "proclamation," from a Frankish word related to ban (v.).
Mettre sa forest à bandon was a feudal law phrase in the 13th cent. = mettre sa forêt à permission, i.e. to open it freely to any one for pasture or to cut wood in; hence the later sense of giving up one's rights for a time, letting go, leaving, abandoning. [Auguste Brachet, "An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language," transl. G.W. Kitchin, Oxford, 1878]
Etymologically, the word carries a sense of "put someone under someone else's control." Meaning "to give up absolutely" is from late 14c. Related: Abandoned; abandoning.
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abandon
n.
"a letting loose, surrender to natural impulses," 1822, from a sense in French abandon (see abandon (v.). Borrowed earlier (c.1400) from French in a sense "(someone's) control;" and cf. Middle English adverbial phrase at abandon, i.e. "recklessly," attested from late 14c.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper