abjure

American  

[ab-joor, -jur] / æbˈdʒʊər, -ˈdʒɜr /

verb (used with object)

• abjures,
  present (3rd person singular)
• abjured,
  past participle,  past
• abjuring
  present participle

1. to renounce, repudiate, or retract, especially with formal solemnity; recant.

   to abjure one's errors.

2. to renounce or give up under oath; forswear.

   to abjure allegiance.

3. to avoid or shun.

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abjure British  

/ əbˈdʒʊə /

verb

1. to renounce or retract, esp formally, solemnly, or under oath

2. to abstain from or reject

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• abjuration
  noun
• abjurer
  noun
• abjuratory
  adjective
• nonabjuratory
  adjective
• unabjuratory
  adjective
• unabjured
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Participles

• abjuring
  present
• abjured
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• abjure
  simple
• abjures
  simple
• have abjured
  perfect
• has abjured
  perfect
• am abjuring
  progressive
• are abjuring
  progressive
• is abjuring
  progressive
• have been abjuring
  perfect progressive
• has been abjuring
  perfect progressive

Past

• abjured
  simple
• had abjured
  perfect
• was abjuring
  progressive
• were abjuring
  progressive
• had been abjuring
  perfect progressive

Future

• will abjure
  simple
• will have abjured
  perfect
• will be abjuring
  progressive
• will have been abjuring
  perfect progressive

Etymology

Origin of abjure

1400–50; late Middle English < Latin abjūrāre to deny on oath, equivalent to ab- ab- + jūrāre to swear; see jury ¹

Explanation

Abjure means to swear off, and it applies to something you once believed. You can abjure a religious faith, you can abjure your love of another person, and you can abjure the practice of using excessive force in interrogation. Abjure is a more dramatic way to declare your rejection of something you once felt or believed. When you see its Latin roots, it makes sense: from ab- (meaning "away") and jurare ("to swear"). When you abjure something, you swear it away and dissociate yourself with it. You might abjure the field of astrology after receiving a bad fortune, or you might abjure marriage after a bitter divorce.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

abjure abjures abjured abjuring

By 1907, when Sargent was 51, he’d had enough: “No more paughtraits,” he wrote in a now-famous note, “I abhor and abjure them and hope never to do another especially of the Upper Classe.”

From Washington Post ● Mar. 5, 2020

Constitutionally, the role of the monarch is to keep his or her mouth shut, to abjure what Elizabeth, in “The Queen,” calls “the sheer joy of being partial.”

From New York Times ● Nov. 6, 2019

People who are otherwise deemed sceptical abjure their reason and believe in miracles.

From The Guardian ● Apr. 10, 2019

Gottlieb tells the story of how James Boswell, the biographer of Samuel Johnson, visited Hume on his deathbed, hoping to find that at the last minute the philosopher would abjure his doubts and embrace Christianity.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 29, 2016

In words a man may pretend to abjure their empire: but in reality he will remain subject to it all the while.

From The Contemporary Review, Volume 36, November 1879 by Various

India abjures formal alliances, which it sees as constraints on its independence.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026

Because the play abjures psychology in favor of gesture, much as Swan apparently did in his choreopoems, nothing tells us whether he is in on the joke.

From New York Times ● May 2, 2019

Or, make that drama avoidance; this is a novel that abjures not just plot twists but plot advances.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 10, 2014

He abjures his cow pies for sunblush tomato and goat's cheese baguettes and begins to use a Remington Philishave.

From The Guardian ● Aug. 18, 2012

It is the name that he chiefly abjures.

From The International Monthly, Volume 5, No. 3, March, 1852 by Various

Los Angeles District Attorney Nathan Hochman did not immediately say whether he would retry McGhee for the murders, nor whether he would again seek the death penalty, which his predecessor abjured.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 3, 2025

Tunisia's army has historically abjured a political role and Saied has not yet tested the security forces by trying to mobilise them for a major crackdown on dissent.

From Reuters ● Dec. 18, 2022

Passionately denouncing the inequity of his time, Francis of Assisi abjured his wealth and joined the beggars.

From New York Times ● Mar. 3, 2020

His three Republican successors did not follow suit, Calvin Coolidge especially abjured such monarchical power.

From Fox News ● Jan. 10, 2019

In a sober ceremony, the Mexica abjured their old religion and embraced Christianity.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

As for abjuring Eurocentricity, the author himself refers to the “four allies plus China” that received permanent Security Council seats in 1945.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 9, 2026

Nor, in abjuring technical tricks, does he give us anything worth paying attention to between scenes unless you like watching an upright piano get wheeled around.

From New York Times ● Sep. 28, 2017

Later Nate cites an additional, darker reason for abjuring female companionship: “You care a damn about a woman then you keep her as far away from this life as possible.”

From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2017

I hope there’s to be no talk of Atwood’s abjuring magic, or any nonsense like that.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 15, 2016

He had shown such manliness in abjuring wine after that one almost excusable lapse so long ago.

From A Soldier's Trial An Episode of the Canteen Crusade by Charles King