Skip to content

alienate

verb

  1. to other, estrange, marginalize, ostracize, make hostile or indifferent, reject (socially)
  2. to other, estrange, reject, push away, divert, marginalize, ostracize, make hostile or indifferent
  3. to push away, divert (something/someone, from something/someone else)
L43888 on Wikidata ↗

Wiktionary

Pronunciation: /ˈeɪ.li.ə.neɪt/

adj

Etymology: From Middle English alienat(e) (“deranged; uncertain; sequestred, secluded”), from Latin aliēnātus, perfect passive participle of aliēnō (“to estrange, alienate”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from aliēnus. By surface analysis, alien + -ate. See alien, and compare aliene.

  1. Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign

    O alienate from God.

noun

Etymology: From a substantivation of the above adjective, see -ate (noun-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Cognate with French aliéner (“a crazed, mad man, lunatic”).

  1. A stranger; an alien.

verb

Etymology: Either from the above adjective or directly borrowed from Latin alienātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Cognate with French aliéner.

  1. To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.
  2. To estrange; to withdraw affections or attention from; to make indifferent or averse, where love or friendship before subsisted.

    The errors which […] alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart.

    The recollection of his former life is a dream that only the more alienates him from the realities of the present.

  3. To cause one to feel unable to relate.