1
[ verb ] forsake, leave behind

Examples

"We abandoned the old car in the empty parking lot"

Used in print

(Dolores Hitchens, Footsteps in the Night....)

He had the feeling that he should abandon the car and run_off somewhere to hide .

2
[ verb ] give up with the intent of never claiming again

Synonyms

give_up

Examples

"Abandon your life to God" "She gave up her children to her ex-husband when she moved to Tahiti" "We gave the drowning victim up for dead"

Used in print

(Brainard Cheney, "Christianity and the Tragic Vision-Ut...)

During the next five years liberal leaders in the United_States sank in the cumulative confusion attendant upon and manifested in a negative policy of Containment - and the bitterest irony - enforced and enforceable only by threat of a weapon that we felt the greatest distaste for but could not abandon :

(Public Papers of the Presidents of the U.S. D. D....)

The cost of developing a major weapon_system is now so enormous that the greatest care must be exercised in selecting new systems for development , in determining the most satisfactory rate of development , and in deciding the proper time at which either to place a system into production or to abandon it .

(Dolores Hitchens, Footsteps in the Night....)

Once he had abandoned himself to the very worst , once he had quieted all the dragons of worry and suspense , there would n't be very much for Mae to do .

Related terms

foreswear abandonment

3
[ verb ] leave behind empty; move out of

Synonyms

empty vacate

Examples

"You must vacate your office by tonight"

Used in print

(Ann Hebson, The Lattimer Legend....)

Jonathan wrote grimly of the destruction of Harpers_Ferry before they abandoned it ; of their first engagement at Falling_Waters after Old_Jack 's First_Brigade had destroyed all the rolling_stock of the B_+_O_Railroad .

Related terms

leave

4
[ verb ] stop maintaining or insisting on; of ideas, claims, etc.

Synonyms

give_up give

Examples

"He abandoned the thought of asking for her hand in marriage" "Both sides have to give up some claims in these negotiations"

Used in print

(Schubert Ogden, Christ Without Myth....)

When we say that a mythological mode of thought must be completely abandoned , we mean it must be abandoned as the sole or proper means for presenting the Christian understanding of existence .

(Guy Bolton, The Olympians....)

She wrote again and now , abandoning for_the_moment the theme of love , she asked for help in the matter of her career .

Related terms

collapse move_over

5
[ noun ] the trait of lacking restraint or control; freedom from inhibition or worry

Examples

"she danced with abandon"

Used in print

(Musical America, LXXXI:5...)

in his motherland ; in the spacious hunting_grounds of `` Uncle_Sam '' ; in the exciting salons of his lovely , brilliant Paris - mistress of gaiety - excess and abandon - world theatre of new found freedoms in tone , color , dance , design , and thought .

Related terms

unrestraint

6
[ verb ] leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch

Examples

"The mother deserted her children"

Used in print

(St. Louis Post-Dispatch,...)

As a former President , however , Mr._Eisenhower abandoned this role to engage in partisan sniping during a New_York Republican rally , and generally missed his target .

(Saturday Review...)

When the end did come , and the schools were disbanded and abandoned , we felt and hoped that the machinery of psychological_warfare would not be allowed to rust .

(The Wall Street Journal,...)

Mr._Kennan , who has recently abandoned authorship for a new round of diplomacy as the recently appointed American ambassador to Yugoslavia , is not the only man who finds it easier to portray the past than to prescribe for the future .

7
[ noun ] a feeling of extreme emotional intensity

Synonyms

wildness

Examples

"the wildness of his anger"

Related terms

passion

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