1. To
cast or
drive out; to banish; to expel; to deny. "That he
might . . . Abandon them from him." (Udall) "Being all
this time abandoned from your bed." (Shak)
2. To
give up absolutely; to forsake entirely; to renounce utterly; to relinquish all
connection with or concern on; to desert, as a
face to whom one owes
allegiance or fidelity; to quit; to surrender. "Hope was overthrown,
yet could not be abandoned." (I. Taylor)
3. Reflexively: To
give (one's self) up
without attempt at self-control; to
yield (one's self) unrestrainedly; often in a
bad sense. "He
abandoned himself . . . To
his favorite vice." (Macaulay)
4. To relinquish all claim to; used when an insured
face gives up to underwriters all claim to the property covered by a policy, which may stay after loss or
hurt by a peril insured against.
5. A complete giving up to
natural impulses;
freedom from
artificial constraint; careless
freedom or ease.
Synonym: To
give up, yield, forego, cede, surrender, resign, abdicate, quit, relinquish, renounce, desert, forsake, leave, retire,
withdraw from.
To Abandon, Desert, Forsake. These words agree in representing a
face as giving up or leaving some object,
but differ as to the
mode of doing it. The distinctive
sense of
abandon is that of giving up a thing absolutely and finally; as, to
abandon one's friends, places, opinions,
good or
evil habits, a
hopeless enterprise, a shipwrecked vessel. Abandon is more widely applicable than forsake or desert. The Latin
original of
desert appears to have been originally applied to the
case of deserters from military service. Hence, the verb, when used of
persons in the
active voice, has generally or always a
bad sense, implying some
breach of fidelity, honor, etc, the leaving of something which the
face must rightfully
stand by and support; as, to
desert one's colours, to
desert one's post, to
desert one's principles or duty. When used in the passive, the
sense is not necessarily bad; as, the fields were deserted, a deserted village, deserted halls. Forsake implies the breaking
off of previous habit, association, private connection, or that the thing
left had been familiar or frequented; as, to forsake
old friends, to forsake the paths of rectitude, the
blood forsook
his cheeks. It may be used
either in a
good or in a
bad sense.
Origin: OF. Abandoner, F.abandonner; a (L. Ad)+bandon alow, authority, LL. Bandum, bannum, popular proclamation, interdiction, bannire to proclaim, summon: of Germanic origin; cf. Goth. Bandwjan to
show by signs, to identify OHG. Banproclamation. The
word meant to proclaim, put
under a ban, put
under control; hence, as in OE, to compel, subject, or to
leave in the
control of other, and hence, to
give up. See Ban.
Source: Websters Vocabulary