Abandon
noun, verb ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 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.) countable, uncountable
"with gay abandon, with wild abandon"
- 2 the trait of lacking restraint or control; reckless freedom from inhibition or worry wordnet
- 3 Abandonment; relinquishment. countable, obsolete, uncountable
- 4 a feeling of extreme emotional intensity wordnet
- 1 To give up or relinquish control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions. transitive
"[…] he abandoned himself […] to his favourite vice."
- 2 stop maintaining or insisting on; of ideas or claims wordnet
- 3 To desist in doing, practicing, following, holding, or adhering to; to turn away from; to permit to lapse; to renounce; to discontinue. transitive
"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."
- 4 leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch wordnet
- 5 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. transitive
"Many baby girls have been abandoned on the streets of Beijing."
Show 7 more definitions
- 6 leave behind empty; move out of wordnet
- 7 To subdue; to take control of. obsolete, transitive
- 8 give up with the intent of never claiming again wordnet
- 9 To cast out; to banish; to expel; to reject. obsolete, transitive
"Being all this time abandoned from your bed."
- 10 forsake, leave behind wordnet
- 11 To no longer exercise a right, title, or interest, especially with no interest of reclaiming it again; to yield; to relinquish. transitive
"I hereby abandon my position as manager."
- 12 To surrender to the insurer (an insured item), so as to claim a total loss. transitive
Antonyms
All antonymsExample
More examples"There are days where I feel like my brain wants to abandon me."
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.
From Middle English abandoun, from Old French abandon, from Old French abondonner.
Related phrases
More for "abandon"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.