abject

[ ab-jekt, ab-jekt ]

/ ˈæb dʒɛkt, æbˈdʒɛkt /

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adjective

utterly hopeless, miserable, humiliating, or wretched: abject poverty.

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

shamelessly servile; slavish.

Obsolete. cast aside.

Words nearby abject

abirritation, abirritative, abishag, abitibi, abiu, abject, abjection, abjective, abjunction, abjuration, abjure

Origin of abject

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

SYNONYMS FOR abject

1 debasing, degrading; miserable.

2 base, mean, low, vile.

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ANTONYMS FOR abject

exalted.

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OTHER WORDS FROM abject

ab·ject·ly, adverbab·ject·ness, ab·ject·ed·ness, nounun·ab·ject, adjectiveun·ab·ject·ly, adverb

un·ab·ject·ness, noun

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH abject

abject object

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for abjectly

“All it is public humiliation of these abjectly poor people, as well as criminalization,” Cowan says.
Private Prisons Rule With Little Oversight on America’s Border|Caitlin Dickson|June 20, 2014|DAILY BEAST
Mr. Hearty looked round from abjectly apologising to Mr. Sopley.
Adventures of Bindle|Herbert George Jenkins
The odd thing was that she was not appealing: she was abjectly, divinely conceited, absurdly, fantastically happy.
Embarrassments|Henry James
The officer turned and immediately had to beg the lady's pardon most abjectly, for he broke forth into an oath.
Yankee Ships and Yankee Sailors: Tales of 1812|James Barnes

She received him sternly, but he was so abjectly penitent that she soon forgave him, and he returned to Roy with a relieved mind.
His Big Opportunity|Amy Le Feuvre
Abjectly and vilely servile even to lackeys, he scrupled not to use the lowest and paltriest means to gain his ends.
The Memoirs of Louis XIV., His Court and The Regency, Complete|Duc de Saint-Simon

British Dictionary definitions for abjectly

abject

/ (ˈæbdʒɛkt) /

adjective

utterly wretched or hopeless

miserable; forlorn; dejected

indicating humiliation; submissivean abject apology

contemptible; despicable; servilean abject liar

Derived forms of abject

abjection, nounabjectly, adverbabjectness, noun

Word Origin for abject

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

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