abstain

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“
For now must we, to be certain of our sanity and dignity, abstain, which is to clip, impoverish, imprison the soul: or else, taking wings of wine, we go aloft over capes, and islands, and seas, but are even as balloons that cannot make for any line, and are at the mercy of the winds--without a choice, save to come down by virtue of a collapse.

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. intransitive verb To refrain from something by one's own choice: abstain from traditional political rhetoric. See Synonyms at refrain1.
  2. intransitive verb To refrain from voting: Forty senators voted in favor of the bill, 45 voted against it, and 15 abstained.

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Examples (50)

  • They hold that the Great Spirit is displeased with all nations who wantonly engage in war; they abstain, therefore, from all aggressive hostilities. —  The Adventures of Captain Bonneville
  • Occasionally a council member shouts out a "no" or an "abstain," prompting the council president to pause to announce that the record should reflect that. —  Baltimore City Paper
  • If they abstain, they have the right to food and clothing. —  altmuslim
  • But if someone is Catholic and does abstain, then a ballgame seems like a poor excuse to do otherwise. —  The Hardball Times
  • About 50 to 60 percent of men and women with alcohol dependence abstain or show substantial improvement in a year after treatment, which can include drugs such as Forest Laboratories Inc's Campral or acamprosate, naltrexone, also known as Revia and Depade, and disulfiramacamprosate or Antabuse. —  canada.com Top Stories
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same contextWord Family

abstain:   abstained ·  abstaining
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English absteinen, to avoid, from Old French abstenir, from Latin abstinēre, to hold back : abs-, ab-, away; see ab-1 + tenēre, to hold; see ten- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English abstainen, absteinen, abstenen, from Old French abstener, abstenir, astenir, French abstenir, reflexive, from Latin abstinēre, abstain, from abs, off, + tenēre, hold: see tenable. Cf. contain, attain, detain, pertain, retain, sustain.
 

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/æbˈsteɪn/
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