Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To release (repressed emotions) by acting out, as in words, behavior, or the imagination, the situation causing the conflict.
WordNet 3.0
- v. discharge bad feelings or tension through verbalization
Etymologies
- From German abreagieren, from ab ("away from, off, down from") + reagieren ("to react") (Wiktionary)
- Translation of German abreagieren : ab-, away + reagieren, to react. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“What might our media look like, what might our social fabric look like and how might it react, abreact or respond to various stimuli, etcetera?”
“Believing that Michael was understandably reactive to these severe familial stresses, his therapist recommended continued therapy so that he would have a place to ventilate, abreact, and share his feelings in a way that would not create the social consequences noted above at school.”
“You can use cheap rappelz rupees to but things for abreact.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘abreact’.
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Words of Ill-Repute
bona roba, obloquy, bagnio, demirep, frowzy, odium, calumny, opprobrium, rogue, currish, piacular, abreact and 11 more...
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Some new Wordie words this week
Don't tell them they are not real--they might cry.
glover, breakfront, submaximal, criticality, lanoline, mouthy, botheration, metaphorically, metaphase, disavowal, arum, ostentatiously and 162 more...
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plumpesDenken's Words
refulgent, casuistry, scrofulous, syllogism, peristaltic, oleaginously, paratactic, pejoration, quietus, ingeminated, postlapsarian, indurated and 24 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for abreact.
plumpesdenken And in “Headbirths,�? which I wrote about in Saturday Review in 1982, Grass was still taking himself to task: “It was a mistake to imagine that ‘Cat and Mouse’ would abreact my schoolboy sorrows.�? Guilt, and more guilt — and more atonement. Boy, does this guy beat up on himself! I thought. Irving on Grass NYT Jul 7, 2007