abjure
Americanverb (used with object)
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to renounce, repudiate, or retract, especially with formal solemnity; recant.
to abjure one's errors.
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to renounce or give up under oath; forswear.
to abjure allegiance.
-
to avoid or shun.
verb
-
to renounce or retract, esp formally, solemnly, or under oath
-
to abstain from or reject
Other Word Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing abjure
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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.
But we should not want our spouses to abjure the companionship of others once we are no longer available to them.
From New York Times • Aug. 31, 2021
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
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
If the accused was a formal heretic, willing to abjure, and not guilty of having relapsed, he was reconciled with penances.
From The History of the Inquisition of Spain from the Time of its Establishment to the Reign of Ferdinand VII. by Llorente, Juan Antonio
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.
