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abandon

Pronunciation: /əˈbæn.dən/

The English word “abandon” has 9 meanings listed here.

verb

  1. To give up or relinquish control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions.
  2. To desist in doing, practicing, following, holding, or adhering to; to turn away from; to permit to lapse; to renounce; to discontinue.
  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.
  4. To subdue; to take control of.
  5. To cast out; to banish; to expel; to reject.
  6. To no longer exercise a right, title, or interest, especially with no interest of reclaiming it again; to yield; to relinquish.
  7. To surrender to the insurer (an insured item), so as to claim a total loss.

noun

  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.)
  2. Abandonment; relinquishment.

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”),…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.