abandonment

American  

[uh-ban-duhn-muhnt] / əˈbæn dən mənt /

noun

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. 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.

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Other Word Forms

• nonabandonment
  noun

Etymology

Origin of abandonment

abandon ( def. ) + -ment ( def. )

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.

Example Sentences

But what looks to some like abandonment feels to others like a new beginning – and that makes me excited to see how high the women in “Rooster” might fly in coming semesters.

From Salon • May 11, 2026

“To the vast majority of people government interference in matters of banking has become so much an integral part of the accepted institutions,” she acknowledged, “that to suggest its abandonment is to invite ridicule.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 21, 2026

She was subsequently arrested on suspicion of animal abandonment and resisting arrest.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 23, 2026

Kurdish education department worker Issa said the US abandonment was "a major blow to the Kurds".

From Barron's • Feb. 20, 2026

And yet, at the same time—and this is key—no other sport demands and rewards the complete abandonment of the self the way that rowing does.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown

Related Words

• renunciation