privation

[prahy-vey-shuhn]

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noun

lack of the usual comforts or necessaries of life: His life of privation began to affect his health.
an instance of this.
the act of depriving.

the state of being deprived.

Origin of privation

1350–1400; Middle English (< Middle French privacion) < Latin prīvātiōn- (stem of prīvātiō) a taking away. See private, -ion

Synonyms for privation

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1. deprivation, want, need, distress. See hardship.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for privation

hardship, necessity, destitution, lack, indigence, neediness, poverty, want, need, disadvantage

Examples from the Web for privation

Contemporary Examples of privation

Possible redemption comes in the form of Orlando (Jeremy Renner), a magician determined to save Ewa from a live of privation.
Cannes Diary: James Gray’s ‘The Immigrant,’ Starring Marion Cotillard, Shines
Richard Porton
May 25, 2013
We had escaped gloom and privation and would wake up in a place where food and warmth were available down the street.
A ‘Blue Velvet’ Christmas in Paris
Richard Woodward
December 24, 2012

Historical Examples of privation

We went on a short allowance; and suffered a good deal by the privation.
Ned Myers
James Fenimore Cooper
They must, therefore, be protected from any privation whatever, independently of anything that I may do.
Freeland
Theodor Hertzka
How pitiable are their physical conditions, their privation and distress of body!
Murder Point
Coningsby Dawson
It was not the dread of failure and privation which troubled him.
The Portygee
Joseph Crosby Lincoln
To this privation submarine warfare has contributed materially.
England and Germany
Emile Joseph Dillon

British Dictionary definitions for privation

privation

noun

loss or lack of the necessities of life, such as food and shelter
hardship resulting from this
the state of being deprived
logic obsolete the absence from an object of what ordinarily or naturally belongs to such objects

Word Origin for privation

C14: from Latin prīvātiō deprivation

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

Word Origin and History for privation

mid-14c., "action of depriving," from Old French privacion and directly from Latin privationem (nominative privatio) "a taking away," noun of action from past participle stem of privare "deprive" (see private (adj.)). Meaning "want of life's comforts or of some necessity" is attested from 1790.