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abandon
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
abandon
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
abandon a baby (=leave your baby somewhere because you do not want it)
▪ A disturbing number of babies are abandoned by their mothers.
abandon your ideals (=to stop believing in ideals)
▪ Have these young people abandoned the ideals of the Civil Rights Movement?
abandon your principles (=stop believing in them or trying to act by them)
▪ It has been said that he abandoned his basic political principles while he was in power.
abandon/give up an attempt
▪ They had to abandon their attempt to climb the mountain.
abandon/give up your plans
▪ The city authorities have abandoned their plans to host the Super Bowl.
abandon/give up/drop a pretence (=stop pretending that you are doing something or that something is true)
▪ Maria had abandoned any pretence of having faith of any kind long ago.
abandon/scrap a plan (=decide not to continue with it)
▪ The plan was scrapped because it was too expensive.
an abandoned baby (=left somewhere by a mother who does not want it)
▪ The abandoned baby was found under a hedge.
call off/abandon a search
▪ They called off the search when it got dark.
leave/abandon sb to their fate (=leave someone in a bad situation)
▪ The abandoned sailors were left to their fate on the island.
lose/give up/abandon hope (=stop hoping)
▪ After so long without any word from David, Margaret was starting to lose hope.
reckless abandon (=without caring about the danger)
▪ He ran into the burning house with reckless abandon .
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
never
▪ All his long life the taste never abandoned him.
▪ But the radiance and exuberance have never abandoned her.
▪ Lexandro stared at Valence, and it was as if their minds conjoined for an instant - Valence would never abandon Lexandro.
▪ In contrast, the tubes of a tubeworm are fixed and the worms never abandon their tubes.
▪ It is still wonderful - both how far he moved from it and how he never abandoned it at all.
■ NOUN
attempt
▪ Loretta decided she would have to abandon her attempt to see Veronica for the rest of the day.
▪ Helen watched my grandmother with a peculiar horror, for my grandmother had abandoned all attempts to make herself presentable.
▪ Charles realized that he must abandon the attempt to re-assert the Forest rights enjoyed by his medieval predecessors.
▪ It abandons the attempt to detect a class struggle between exploiters and exploited within advanced capitalism.
▪ Isabel abandoned the attempt and fought to regain her control instead.
▪ In reality it was simply a recognition that the government had abandoned any serious attempt to keep monetary growth within targets.
car
▪ They abandoned their getaway car in Sealand Road.
▪ Perhaps the engine of an abandoned car will start or a hot-air balloon will materialize.
▪ Dennis Garvey drowned off the Norfolk coast after abandoning his car in Great Yarmouth.
▪ Half an hour went by, and then we gave up, reluctantly deciding to abandon the car.
▪ The two joyriders abandoned the stolen car and ran off.
▪ Many aging enthusiasts began to abandon sports cars for sport utilities.
▪ The joyriders abandoned the car nearby.
▪ There was another abandoned car by the side of the road.
child
▪ Her parents offered no explanation when police boarded their plane at Chicago airport yesterday to arrest them for abandoning their children.
▪ The ministry van arrived to collect the abandoned children and the eight boys and girls sent from up the northward coasts.
▪ Sarah had abandoned her child, she couldn't want her back now.
▪ Certainly if a father dies or abandons a child, the child will understandably mourn.
▪ I could feel the sad power of disintegration: husbands gone off, wives abandoned, children baffled.
▪ Four other abandoned children whose final days had not been as comfortable were buried that same day.
▪ He would never forgive her for abandoning his child.
▪ His wife ran away with another man, leaving him and abandoning the children.
decision
▪ He made the hard decision to abandon the Old World.
▪ The crisis and the government's decision to abandon its currency controls hit the already fragile banking system hard.
▪ Ferris took the decision to abandon the aircraft, which crashed at 1205 at Oxborough, Norfolk.
effort
▪ I shall not abandon the effort to persuade you otherwise.
▪ The knowledgeable authorities occupy the institutional front row only because others have abandoned the effort.
▪ Alyssia bared her teeth in a semblance of a smile and then abandoned the effort.
▪ Democrats are discussing whether to abandon an effort to force a House vote on a resolution condemning the actions of Rep.
▪ But the president claims he abandoned this effort when told that it would require a presidential decree.
▪ Only once did I abandon an effort to sample a specific black smoker because I could not safely get into position.
▪ But opposition proved overwhelming, and city officials, at least temporarily, abandoned their efforts.
▪ But when a four-day strike at the unit threatened to stall vehicle production, Chrysler agreed to abandon those efforts.
hope
▪ Instead, at this point Sartre at last abandons all hope of proving History as a totalization without a totalizer.
▪ To abandon hope should be a one shot deal; a man should not have to do it twice.
▪ She had long since abandoned that hope.
▪ Thus, there is still enough separation between the Goldens and the Jerseys to keep Warriors fans from abandoning hope entirely.
▪ She had abandoned all hope of getting her contract down in black and white!
▪ At three in the morning, she abandoned any hope of getting to sleep.
▪ My consolation is in your ecstasy when you abandon hope, and there's nothing to be done.
idea
▪ This process abandons the old idea that it is necessary to start with a two-carbon feedstock to make the two-carbon acetic acid.
▪ After discreet soundings, they prudently abandoned the idea, which would have involved a major encroachment upon judicial independence.
▪ With a sense of relief I abandoned my idea of escape.
▪ Why have you abandoned the idea?
▪ The shadow cabinet decided in April 1912 that it would abandon the referendum idea and return to the full tariff policy.
▪ Nevertheless, the appearance of Forbes' paper led Darwin to abandon any idea of a separate publication on the topic.
plan
▪ The Government announced on 19 February that it was abandoning its plan to abolish legal aid in asylum cases.
▪ So Sherman sighed and abandoned his plan to save his daughter from the elements.
▪ He gives no money for the care of his son, and Aurora has abandoned plans to pursue child support.
▪ Why don't we abandon the original plan and go straight to Debenham and Freebody, as we're so close.
▪ Because of his claimed penury, Mr Hamilton has abandoned plans to contest the libel verdict.
▪ He now abandons the desperate plan of separating his company into two.
policy
▪ No clients of Engel and Rudman have abandoned their insurance policies.
▪ Because the government abandoned any formal incomes policy there was less call for it to maintain close relations with union leaders.
▪ The party has abandoned policies which made it unelectable in the 1980s.
▪ We do not intend to abandon this policy.
▪ At that late stage they abandoned a kick-and-chase policy and began moving the ball.
▪ It is not clear, he said, whether the review will formally abandon the policy or simply ignore it.
▪ Yet far from leading him to abandon or modify his policies, opposition incited him to more drastic methods.
▪ It abandoned incomes policy in the private sector, seeking only to keep pay increases to public employees tightly under control.
principle
▪ They abandoned the principle for the council tax, so no argument in principle remains.
▪ Einstein had no intention of abandoning the relativity principle.
▪ Without abandoning the principle of honour among thieves, let's look at those two points closely.
▪ And it would largely abandon the principle of progressivity, under which the wealthy pay higher rates than the middle class.
▪ Now he claims to have abandoned this principle, apparently for no other reason than the pursuit of electoral palatability.
project
▪ Termination would leave the government with no option but to invite bids for a new concession, or abandon the project.
▪ I was sure that the raft and the team meant more to him than any idea of abandoning the project.
▪ Is it worth paying the price or abandoning the project?
▪ No organization likes being told that it has got to hold back its expansion or abandon some pet project.
▪ But rising gas prices in the 1970s forced the corporation to abandon the project.
▪ Catholic civil servants usually had to abandon any practical political project if they wished to proceed through the ranks.
▪ The second-level decision required is whether or not to authorize further research or to abandon the project at decision node 2b.
▪ Much of the renovation work was already done before a previous developer had to abandon the project.
search
▪ We should not abandon the search for a better way of determining pay for all health service staff.
▪ By the 1990s, large and institutional investors had abandoned the search for security and demanded instead fat returns on investments.
▪ After throwing things around in a very haphazard fashion she finally abandoned her search.
▪ Somewhat bewildered, they abandoned the search and the world heard about yet another maritime tragedy.
ship
▪ I don't understand why Andropulos and the others didn't abandon ship earlier.
▪ They enrolled here expecting much and are reluctant to abandon ship, though I have argued with them.
▪ The crew now wanted to abandon ship, and a few minutes later red flares were seen dead ahead.
▪ Ribault soon had to abandon the other two ships, the last reminders of a planned Huguenot empire.
▪ Paul Reichmann was not yet ready to abandon the ship.
▪ He was discouraged, ready to abandon ship.
▪ Of course I don't want to abandon ship.
▪ We make ready to abandon ship!
■ VERB
feel
▪ But when she left me in the snow, without an explanation, I felt abandoned.
▪ Suddenly the soldier feels himself abandoned and cast off from all security.
▪ I don't feel I can abandon Crevecoeur after having worked with hir all this time.
▪ Coaches often are left to feel abandoned as well, unable to field enough players, even in the smaller leagues.
▪ One is whether Communists continue to see the president as their leader, or start to feel he has abandoned them.
▪ When this need is not met, a woman may feel abandoned, lonely, and insecure.
▪ Fourth, the strange reluctance he felt about abandoning Downes as Suspect Number One.
▪ He felt not free but abandoned.
force
▪ Chilperic and Guntram united against him, but Sigibert forced Guntram to abandon the alliances on two occasions.
▪ However, stricter voting procedures had forced the Democrats to abandon their traditional corruptions.
▪ He says they should not be forced to abandon their education.
▪ I had two punctures and was forced to abandon the Nissan.
▪ Frostbite forced them to abandon the expedition.In 1988 and 1989 they were defeated by freak weather conditions.
▪ The driving rain saw streams turned into muddy torrents, blocking roads and forcing some motorists to abandon their cars.
▪ He rattled off the list of headline-worthy cases he was being forced to abandon.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
with gay abandon
▪ As a raconteur and conversationalist, scattering indiscretions and gossip with gay abandon, he was the acme of unconventionality.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a home for abandoned kittens and puppies
▪ A new-born baby was found abandoned on the steps of a hospital yesterday.
▪ All attempts to find a peaceful solution to the conflict have now been abandoned.
▪ Education leaders do not want to abandon California's commitment to affordable college education.
▪ My sister abandoned her husband and three children and went to live in Holland.
▪ Owing to rough weather, the coast guard had been forced to abandon the search.
▪ Retreating troops were told to abandon their weapons and run as fast as they could towards the beach.
▪ The 9-year-old boy was abandoned by his alcoholic father.
▪ The baby was found abandoned outside a local mosque.
▪ The government has now abandoned its plans to privatize parts of the health service.
▪ The suspect abandoned the car at Llewellyn and Hamilton Avenues.
▪ The volcano eruption forced the U.S. to abandon Clark Air Force Base.
▪ There was increased pressure on North Korea to abandon nuclear arms development.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ But if the general were the unclear, we could with reason abandon all science and inquiry.
▪ I wanted to be accurate about it and in order to be accurate, you have to abandon all restrictions.
▪ It will offer a fair rates policy that gives 100 percent. rates relief to people whom the present Government have abandoned.
▪ Knighton is reported to be ready to abandon his takeover bid.
▪ Long-term research projects within companies will most likely be abandoned altogether or sharply reduced.
▪ Republicans, meanwhile, are mulling whether to abandon the notion of filing ethics charges against Rep.
▪ So, intellectually unfashionable but undaunted, the idea of Utopia abandoned the world altogether and was launched into space.
▪ Sometimes Doogan abandons her classical re-visions altogether and heads into surrealism.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
gay
▪ As a raconteur and conversationalist, scattering indiscretions and gossip with gay abandon, he was the acme of unconventionality.
reckless
▪ With reckless abandon, she pressured herself to him, striving to mould herself to his tough maleness.
▪ Now, with reckless abandon, it promises to meddle with local-government structure.
▪ They shoot and blow each other up with reckless abandon.
wild
▪ They fired away with wild abandon, but luckily with little accuracy, and he was able to extricate himself.
▪ The thought of presenting her naked behind to him so crudely filled her with a wild abandon.
▪ Synod members were under pressure to crack down on gay clergy, who were portrayed as leading lives of wild abandon!
▪ Gritting her teeth, she lowered her head, and barged through them, swinging the cable-cutters with wild abandon.
▪ Then all the bells joined in with wild abandon, ringing joyfully and merrily, welcoming in the New Year.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Both sides fought with abandon, crimson water swirling round their knees.
▪ By most people's standards Marilyn Monroe was fairly uninhibited; bathing infrequently, and belching and farting with carefree abandon.
▪ He scratches and gouges with abandon in the fluent paint.
▪ It gained and lost with abandon, crushing the Harrisons with embarrassment.
▪ Rather than joyous abandon, I am full of thought.
▪ They fired away with wild abandon, but luckily with little accuracy, and he was able to extricate himself.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Abandon

Abandon \A*ban"don\ ([.a]*b[a^]n"d[u^]n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Abandoned (-d[u^]nd); p. pr. & vb. n. Abandoning.] [OF. abandoner, F. abandonner; a (L. ad) + bandon permission, authority, LL. bandum, bannum, public proclamation, interdiction, bannire to proclaim, summon: of Germanic origin; cf. Goth. bandwjan to show by signs, to designate OHG. ban proclamation. The word meant to proclaim, put under a ban, put under control; hence, as in OE., to compel, subject, or to leave in the control of another, and hence, to give up. See Ban.]

  1. To cast or drive out; to banish; to expel; to reject.

    That he might . . . abandon them from him.
    --Udall.

    Being all this time abandoned from your bed.
    --Shak.

  2. To give up absolutely; to forsake entirely; to renounce utterly; to relinquish all connection with or concern on; to desert, as a person to whom one owes allegiance or fidelity; to quit; to surrender.

    Hope was overthrown, yet could not be abandoned.
    --I. Taylor.

  3. Reflexively: To give (one's self) up without attempt at self-control; to yield (one's self) unrestrainedly; -- often in a bad sense.

    He abandoned himself . . . to his favorite vice.
    --Macaulay.

  4. (Mar. Law) To relinquish all claim to; -- used when an insured person gives up to underwriters all claim to the property covered by a policy, which may remain after loss or damage by a peril insured against.

    Syn: To give up; yield; forego; cede; surrender; resign; abdicate; quit; relinquish; renounce; desert; forsake; leave; retire; withdraw from.

    Usage: To Abandon, Desert, Forsake. These words agree in representing a person as giving up or leaving some object, but differ as to the mode of doing it. The distinctive sense of abandon is that of giving up a thing absolutely and finally; as, to abandon one's friends, places, opinions, good or evil habits, a hopeless enterprise, a shipwrecked vessel. Abandon is more widely applicable than forsake or desert. The Latin original of desert appears to have been originally applied to the case of deserters from military service. Hence, the verb, when used of persons in the active voice, has usually or always a bad sense, implying some breach of fidelity, honor, etc., the leaving of something which the person should rightfully stand by and support; as, to desert one's colors, to desert one's post, to desert one's principles or duty. When used in the passive, the sense is not necessarily bad; as, the fields were deserted, a deserted village, deserted halls. Forsake implies the breaking off of previous habit, association, personal connection, or that the thing left had been familiar or frequented; as, to forsake old friends, to forsake the paths of rectitude, the blood forsook his cheeks. It may be used either in a good or in a bad sense.

Abandon

Abandon \A*ban"don\, n. [F. abandon. fr. abandonner. See Abandon, v.] Abandonment; relinquishment. [Obs.] [1913 Webster] ||

Abandon

Abandon \A`ban`don"\ ([.a]`b[aum]N`d[^o]N"), n. [F. See Abandon.] A complete giving up to natural impulses; freedom from artificial constraint; careless freedom or ease.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
abandon

late 14c., "to give up, surrender (oneself or something), give over utterly; to yield (oneself) utterly (to religion, fornication, etc.)," from Old French abandoner (12c.), from adverbial phrase à bandon "at will, at discretion," from à "at, to" (see ad-) + bandon "power, jurisdiction," from Latin bannum, "proclamation," from a Frankish word related to ban (v.).\n\nMettre sa forest à bandon was a feudal law phrase in the 13th cent. = mettre sa forêt à permission, i.e. to open it freely to any one for pasture or to cut wood in; hence the later sense of giving up one's rights for a time, letting go, leaving, abandoning.

[Auguste Brachet, "An Etymological Dictionary of the French Language," transl. G.W. Kitchin, Oxford, 1878]

\nEtymologically, the word carries a sense of "put someone under someone else's control." Meaning "to give up absolutely" is from late 14c. Related: Abandoned; abandoning.
abandon

"a letting loose, surrender to natural impulses," 1822, from a sense in French abandon (see abandon (v.). Borrowed earlier (c.1400) from French in a sense "(someone's) control;" and compare Middle English adverbial phrase at abandon, i.e. "recklessly," attested from late 14c.

Wiktionary
abandon

Etymology 1 vb. 1 (context transitive obsolete English) To subdue; to take control of. (Attested from around (1350 to 1470) until the mid 16th century.) 2 (context transitive English) To give up control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions. (First attested from around (1350 to 1470)) 3 (context transitive English) To desist in doing, practicing, following, holding, or adhering to; to turn away from; to permit to lapse; to renounce; to discontinue. (First attested from around (1350 to 1470)) Etymology 2

adv. (context obsolete not comparable English) Freely; entirely. n. 1 A yielding to natural impulses or inhibitions; freedom from artificial constraint, with loss of appreciation of consequences. (Early 19th century.)(R:CDOE: page=2). 2 (context obsolete English) abandonment; relinquishment.

Related phrases:
WordNet
abandon

  1. n: the trait of lacking restraint or control; freedom from inhibition or worry; "she danced with abandon" [syn: wantonness, unconstraint]

  2. a feeling of extreme emotional intensity; "the wildness of his anger" [syn: wildness]

  3. v: forsake, leave behind; "We abandoned the old car in the empty parking lot"

  4. stop maintaining or insisting on; of ideas, claims, etc.; "He abandoned the thought of asking for her hand in marriage"; "Both sides have to give up some calims in these negociations" [syn: give up]

  5. give up with the intent of never claiming again; "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" [syn: give up]

  6. leave behind empty; move out of; "You must vacate your office by tonight" [syn: vacate, empty]

  7. leave someone who needs or counts on you; leave in the lurch; "The mother deserted her children" [syn: forsake, desolate, desert]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Abandon

Abandon, abandoned, or abandonment may refer to:

  • Abandonment (emotional), a subjective emotional state in which people feel undesired, left behind, insecure, or discarded
  • Abandonment (existentialism), the existentialist idea that humanity is abandoned in existence and must find its own meaning
  • Abandonment (legal), a legal term regarding property
    • Child abandonment, the extralegal abandonment of children
    • Lost, mislaid, and abandoned property, legal status of property after abandonment and rediscovery
  • Abandonment (mysticism)
Abandon (band)

Abandon is an American Christian rock band from San Antonio, Texas. The group had five members: brothers Josh (lead vocals) and Justin Engler (guitar), cousins Stevan (guitar) and Dave Vela (drums), and Bryan Fowler (bass). They signed onto ForeFront Records in late 2007 and released the Abandon EP in July 2008. Their first single "Providence" was released to radios in August and has reached No. 7 on R&R's Christian rock charts.

The group's name was inspired by the Bible verse of Matthew 10:38, which reads "And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me."

Abandon (album)

Abandon is the sixteenth studio album by Deep Purple released in the Spring of 1998. It was Deep Purple's second album with Steve Morse on guitar and the last one with founding member Jon Lord.

The album was followed by a successful 1998/1999 world tour which brought Deep Purple to Australia for the first time in 15 years. In 1999 a live album and DVD Total Abandon: Australia '99 recorded in Melbourne on 20 April 1999 was released.

The album title is actually a pun from Ian Gillan – "A Band On" – and the album was followed by the "A Band on Tour". Uniquely for a Deep Purple studio album, it features a reworking of a previously recorded song -"Bloodsucker" from Deep Purple in Rock (here re-titled "Bludsucker"). "Don't Make Me Happy" was mistakenly mastered in mono, and not amended on the final release. One of the two versions of the song released on single was, however, mastered in stereo.

Abandon (film)

Abandon is a 2002 American psychological thriller film released by Paramount Pictures. It was written and directed by Stephen Gaghan, starring Katie Holmes as a college student whose boyfriend ( Charlie Hunnam) disappeared two years previously. Despite being set at an American university, much of the movie was filmed in Canada at McGill University's McConnell Hall.

It is based on the book Adams Fall by Sean Desmond. The book was re-titled Abandon for the movie tie-in paperback printing.

The film co-stars Zooey Deschanel and Gabrielle Union, with Benjamin Bratt playing the detective investigating the boyfriend's disappearance. It received generally negative reviews, with Variety magazine dismissing it as "a tricked-up Fatal Attraction wannabe".

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "abandon".

Even the news that the Yorktown, after quelling the fires and resuming fleet speed, had been torpedoed in a second attack, was again ablaze and listing, and might be abandoned, could be taken in stride.

Whig party have abandoned their principles by adopting him as their candidate.

During the last week or two Ward had obviously changed much, abandoning his attempts at affability and speaking only in hoarse but oddly repellent whispers on the few occasions that he ventured forth.

One July as he was walking in a suburban street which ended in some dusty fields, Agaric heard groans coming from a moss-grown well that had been abandoned by the gardeners.

On the first attack, they abandoned their ensigns, threw down their arms, and dispersed on all sides with an active speed, which abated the loss, whilst it aggravated the shame, of their defeat.

But we wanted to show them an Algor that would no longer abandon everything to Bakor, an Algor that was strong enough to be a home for Algorans.

Anyway, a year ago, some Spiders were using abandoned mines in the altiplano south of Calorica, trying to find a difference between gravitational mass and inertial mass.

So I abandoned my original work and began the greater one, even though I had amassed considerable material by that stage and publication would, undoubtedly, have gained me both the fame in the world and the patronage of the mighty which have forever eluded my grasp.

But to conclude from any such admissions that a systematic policy of promoting individual and national amelioration should be abandoned in wholly unnecessary.

Jane hurried after Amy into the airy white-and-blue-papered room they had shared since they were old enough to abandon the nursery.

Clutching Anele, she abandoned her confusion and reached instead for the memory of her fall to this place.

But he soon abandoned speculations, which may be compared to a shaking anemometer that will not let the troubled indicator take station.

I may mention that our aneroid shows us that in the continual incline which we have ascended since we abandoned our canoes we have risen to no less than three thousand feet above sea-level.

Irish members and their supporters, that, on the 1st of July, Sir Robert Peel announced that it was abandoned by government.

Fortunately the panicky flight of Antal and his crew helped Hunnar and Elfa to convince the citizens of Yingyapin that for the moment at least safety lay in abandoning their homes and striking out across the ice.