abandon

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to stop maintaining or insisting on

   I abandoned my vacation plans when it was clear no-one was interested.

2. 2
   verb

   to leave someone who needs or counts on you

   They abandoned me when things got rough.

3. 3
   verb

   to leave behind empty

   You should abandon the building.

4. 4
   verb

   to give up with the intent of never claiming again

   I abandoned the project due to disagreements with the client.

5. 5
   verb

   To give up or relinquish control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions.

   […] he abandoned himself […] to his favourite vice.

6. 6
   verb

   To desist in doing, practicing, following, holding, or adhering to; to turn away from; to permit to lapse; to renounce; to discontinue.

   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.

7. 7
   verb

   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.

   Many baby girls have been abandoned on the streets of Beijing.

8. 8
   verb

   To cast out; to banish; to expel; to reject.

   Being all this time abandoned from your bed.

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.