Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. The condition of being temporarily set aside; suspension: held the plan in abeyance.
- n. Law A condition of undetermined ownership, as of an estate that has not yet been assigned.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In law, a state of expectation or contemplation. Thus, the fee simple or inheritance of lands and tenements is in abeyance when there is no person in being in whom it can vest, so that it is in a state of expectancy or waiting until a proper person shall appear. So also where one man holds land for life, with remainder to the heirs of another, and the latter is yet alive, the remainder is in abeyance, since no man can have an heir until his death. Titles of honor and dignities are said to be in abeyance when it is uncertain who shall enjoy them. Thus, in English law, when a nobleman holding a dignity descendible to his heirs general dies leaving daughters, the king by his prerogative may grant the dignity to any one of the daughters he pleases, or to the male issue of one of such daughters. While the title to the dignity is thus in suspension it is said to be in abeyance.
- n. A state of suspended action or existence, or temporary inactivity.
Wiktionary
- n. heraldry Expectancy of a title, its right in existence but its exercise suspended.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Law) Expectancy; condition of being undetermined.
- n. Suspension; temporary suppression.
WordNet 3.0
- n. temporary cessation or suspension
Etymologies
- Anglo-Norman, variant of Old French abeance, desire, from abaer, to gape at : a-, at (from Latin ad-; see ad-) + baer, to gape; see bay2. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It definitely feels that it cannot ignore Christ, is not capable of leaving Christ in abeyance and then otherwise leading a busy life.”
“Futures is the award-winning science-fiction section of Nature, currently in abeyance in Nature itself but being published each month in Nature's monthly sister title, Nature Physics.”
“But my impression of a suspended sentence is that it is held in abeyance unless the defendant completes a period of time without a further criminal offense.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Extending Probation Sentence Without Proof Beyond a Reasonable Doubt?
“And they would rather hold that money in abeyance for next year.”
“Without fossil fuels, or some form of alternative energy that can be scaled up to the consumption level of fossil fuels, these non-adaptive social systems will collapse, and all the ferocity of tribal competitiveness, which they had been holding in abeyance, will appear.”
What a Bunch of Apes! « L.E. Modesitt, Jr. – The Official Website
“If the socialistic spirit is to be held in abeyance in this country, businesses of this character (anthracite coal mining) must be handled with extraordinary caution.”
“In fact even the committed ones should put their decision in abeyance not because of popular vote or other but rather because Obama has not gone trough the procees of vetting.”
Clinton reviewing 'options' - but says superdelegates could shift
“Today, with radical feminism a movement in abeyance, we are rapidly losing familiarity with the far-reaching perspective and bold imagination that might have cleared away the legacy, in order that we might invent a genuinely new way in which men and women might live together. 77”
Manhood in the Age of Aquarius: Masculinity in Two Countercultural Communities, 196583
“The charge is being held in abeyance under the terms of an agreement between the State and Mr. Limbaugh.”
“With Equiano's masochistic strategies in abeyance, he shifts from object of abasement to subject of punishment, from bonded chattle to bondsman.”
The State of Things: Olaudah Equiano and the Volatile Politics of Heterocosmic Desire
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘abeyance’.
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GRE 2014
abate, abdicate, abase, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 more...
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important
shamanism, consol, sanguine, iffy, affinity, concatenation, honed, innumberable, aiden, inexorable, vet, suss and 176 more...
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501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
zealot, wistful, welter, wary, whimsical, warranted, vortex, vivisection, volatile, vitiate, viscous, visage and 787 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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A to abominator (Chambers)
aa gets over 40 hits
aardvark 49 hits
abbatoir 103 hits
abjure 138 hitsA, A 1, aa, A-line, A-list, A-lister, A-road, A-side, from A to B, from A to Z, A-bomb, A-effect and 254 more...
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man gre
abase, abeyance, abreast, abscission, abscond, abyss, accede, accretion, acerbic, acidulous, acumen, adulterate and 483 more...
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passive
words of inaction
tepid, languid, stagnant, inertia, effete, mired, soporific, reticent, taciturn, mollify, nebbish, milquetoast and 13 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1824 more...
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Verecund, flivver, etc
Just some words I happen to enjoy. Some thread-worn, some not.
yegg, yob, verecund, amatory, fermata, threepenny, gruntled, flivver, gamboge, decolletage, ordure, nudnik and 173 more...
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My GRE Vocab
moniker, sobriquet, prerogative, aberration, aberrant, nuance, notorious, infamous, content, refer, allude, renown and 109 more...
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word tank
a couple words
logolepsy, nefarious, quintessential, tintinnabulation, serendipity, rhapsody, palimpsest, panoply, mellifluous, imbue, loquacious, garrulous and 174 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for abeyance.
kingparton Every creative writer, even the most immature, knows the sensation of a conscious mind in abeyance while the hand goes writing, writing at the dictation of some inner force.
Burges Johnson, Essaying the Essay Jul 26, 2011
inaudible "The most active and recognised of the Anti-Monarchist organizations in the United Kingdom, they were a central fixture in British anarchist, and to a lesser extent, republican, movements, before going into abeyance following the arrest of 41 members in the aftermath of protests against the Queen's Golden Jubilee."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Movement_against_the_monarchy Apr 17, 2010
super-labmaven "'No essay upon sleep, however brief, is considered complete without some reference to those remarkable states of the mind (or of the brain) when the will is in abeyance and the consciousness is awake . . . "
from The Literature And Curiosities Of Dreams, by Frank Seafield; Partial Activity Of Nervous Centres. Arthur E. Durham. Oct 25, 2009
rolig Isn't Elizabeth Bowen a marvelous writer? She deserves to be rediscovered. Dec 1, 2007
exquisite "The frame ... held a picture of what was at the best abeyance–at the worst, there came out of it a warning to the bottom of her heart, that no return can ever make restitution for the going away." - Elizabeth Bowen, The Heat of the Day Feb 1, 2007