abandonment
Americannoun
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an act or instance of leaving a person or thing permanently and completely.
He struggles to deal with his abandonment by his wife, and now having to care for their infant alone.
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an act or instance of permanently setting aside a principle, discontinuing an activity, etc..
I believe in the struggle for radical social change, but it must be accompanied by an abandonment of the notion that the end justifies the means.
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an act or instance of giving up control of something, or of yielding to one’s impulses or to an external or spiritual force.
No psychiatric diagnosis quite captures Hitler’s boundless will to lead, his self-deception, and his utter abandonment to evil.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of abandonment
Explanation
Abandonment is the act of getting rid of something. It’s how dogs become stray and children become orphaned. If abandonment is your greatest fear in life, make sure to surround yourself with loyal friends and treat them kindly. Abandonment, a noun meaning "relinquishment," stems from the French abandonnement and was first recorded in the early 17th century. "Life, misfortunes, isolation, abandonment, poverty, are battlefields which have their heroes; obscure heroes, sometimes greater than the illustrious heroes," said Victor Hugo. He treats a person's survival of abandonment with the utmost respect, perhaps more than that accorded survival of war or other more obvious trials.
Vocabulary lists containing abandonment
Small as an Elephant
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Novel Study: Walden, "Solitude"–"House-Warming"
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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.
Animal abandonment is a misdemeanor charge, while animal cruelty is a so-called wobbler offense that can be charged as a misdemeanor or felony.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 1, 2026
Dürrenmatt penned “The Visit” as a critique of Switzerland’s neutrality after World War II, which he saw as an abandonment of ethics driven by capitalism.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Still, the abandonment caused some fans to express their displeasure with messages to the BBC's live coverage of the Test.
From BBC ● Aug. 29, 2026
The geographic pattern has remained in place for at least 9,000 years and appears to reflect the gradual abandonment of insect eating among European populations.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 27, 2026
A famous example involves Japan’s abandonment of guns.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
Definitions 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.
