Relinquished

He had qualified as a doctor but early relinquished the profession of medicine.

He had qualified as a doctor but early relinquished the profession of medicine, and lived at home while pursuing literary ambitions; though his verses never had any marked success.

Now the ships were usually beached on the dry sand: / the young men were busy with weddings and their fresh fields: / I was deciding on laws and homesteads: suddenly, / from some infected region of the sky, came a wretched plague, / corrupting bodies, trees, and crops, and a season of death. / They relinquished sweet life, or dragged their sick limbs / around: then Sirius blazed over barren fields: / the grass withered, and the sickly harvest denied its fruits.