abject

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“
"Is dinner ready Once more she had him where she wished--abject, apologetic, conscious of the high honor of merely being permitted to associate with her.

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Definitions (17)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. adjective Brought low in condition or status. See Synonyms at mean2.
  2. adjective Being of the most contemptible kind: abject cowardice.
  3. adjective Being of the most miserable kind; wretched: abject poverty.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (7)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (50)

  • His appearance was abject, his countenance betrayed a consciousness of secret guilt; and, though his ambition and rapacity were insatiate, his demeanour exhibited such a want of spirit, that had he stood forth as Prime Minister, which he really was, his very look would have encouraged opposition.' —  Life Of Johnson, Vol. 3
  • Swaysland basically takes these very intimate and personal moments-the solitary young person at a computer in an empty room screams the various sorts of confessional diatribes that litter the web-intensifies the intimacy of the relationship by inviting viewers to don headphones to listen to the young men seen in the images, and then amplifies the abject isolation of the entire enterprise by focusing on the trite things they say. —  Baltimore City Paper
  • Failures are always abject, absolute, historic, astounding or unprecedented. —  Top Stories - Google News
  • Above all, I thought he would avoid risking a Carter-type, one-term abject failure. —  Power Line
  • The poor, little beggar was so abject--too abject indeed for common decency, since he too, after all, was human. —  The History of Sir Richard Calmady A Romance
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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, outcast, from Latin abiectus, past participle of abicere, to cast away : ab-, from; see ab-1 + iacere, to throw; see yē- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English abject, from Latin abjectus, downcast, low, mean, past participle of abicere, also spelled abjicere, from ab, away, + jacěre, throw, = Greek ἰάπτειν, throw: see iambic.
  2. from Latin abjectus, past participle: see the adjective
 

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/ˈæbdʒɛkt/
by American Heritage
by peggy tharpe

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