Skip to content
Vinony

abandon

noun

  1. freedom from constraint or convention
L315913 on Wikidata ↗

verb

  1. to leave a place behind
  2. to give up (something)
  3. to cease to use (something)
  4. leave behind
  5. to give (oneself) over unrestrainedly
  6. exchange
L477 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /əˈbæn.dən/ / /əˈban.dən/ / /əˈbɛn.dən/

noun

Etymology: From Middle English abandoun, from Old French abandon, from Old French abondonner.

  1. A yielding to natural impulses or inhibitions; freedom from artificial constraint, with loss of appreciation of consequences. (Now especially in the phrase with abandon.)

    “with gay abandon, with wild abandon, with reckless abandon”

    “The Italian painters have an abandon in their chiar' oscuro which mellows up their flesh tints in a way that no other school can imitate : the frigidity of their outline is another remarkable feature, and the harmony of their impasto is unique.”

  2. Abandonment; relinquishment.

verb

Etymology: From Middle English abandounen, from Old French abandoner, formed from a (“at, to”) + bandon (“jurisdiction, control”), from Late Latin bannum (“proclamation”), bannus, bandum, from Frankish *ban, *bann, from Proto-Germanic *bannaną (“to proclaim, command”) (whence English ban), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to speak”). See also ban, banal. Displaced Middle English forleten (“to abandon”), from Old English forlǣtan, anforlǣtan; see forlet; and Middle English forleven (“to leave behind, abandon”), from Old English forlǣfan; see forleave.

  1. To give up or relinquish control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions.

    “[…] he abandoned himself […] to his favourite vice.”

  2. To desist in doing, practicing, following, holding, or adhering to; to turn away from; to permit to lapse; to renounce; to discontinue.

    “In order to grant the rich these pleasures, the social contract is reconfigured. […] The public realm is privatised, the regulations restraining the ultra–wealthy and the companies they control are abandoned, and Edwardian levels of inequality are almost fetishised.”

  3. To leave behind; to desert, as in a ship, a position, or a person, typically in response to overwhelming odds or impending dangers; to forsake, in spite of a duty or responsibility.

    “Many baby girls have been abandoned on the streets of Beijing.”

    “He was abandoned on the island with no one to help him.”

  4. To subdue; to take control of.
  5. To cast out; to banish; to expel; to reject.

    “Being all this time abandoned from your bed.”

  6. To no longer exercise a right, title, or interest, especially with no interest of reclaiming it again; to yield; to relinquish.

    “I hereby abandon my position as manager.”

  7. To surrender to the insurer (an insured item), so as to claim a total loss.