Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Lack of the basic necessities or comforts of life.
  • noun An act, condition, or result of deprivation or loss.
  • noun The condition of being without a specified quality or attribute.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being deprived; particularly, deprivation or absence of what is necessary for comfort; destitution; want.
  • noun The act of removing something possessed; the removal or destruction of any thing or any property; deprivation.
  • noun In logic, a particular kind of negation consisting in the absence from a subject of a habit which ought to be, might be, or generally is in that subject or others like it.
  • noun The act of degrading from rank or office.
  • noun Technically, in the Roman Catholic Church, the suspension of an ecclesiastic from his office, stipend, ecclesiastical functions, or jurisdiction.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of depriving, or taking away; hence, the depriving of rank or office; degradation in rank; deprivation.
  • noun The state of being deprived or destitute of something, especially of something required or desired; destitution; need.
  • noun The condition of being absent; absence; negation.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun philosophy The state of being deprived of or lacking an attribute formerly or properly possessed; the loss or absence of such an attribute.
  • noun The state of being very poor, and lacking the basic necessities of life.
  • noun The act of depriving someone of such basic necessities; deprivation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun act of depriving someone of food or money or rights
  • noun a state of extreme poverty

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English privacion, from Old French privation, from Latin prīvātiō, prīvātiōn-, from prīvātus, past participle of prīvāre, to deprive; see private.]

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Examples

  • After three-quarters of a century of unparalleled sufferings, the Soviet Union collapsed in privation and misery, leaving massive Russia with an economy no bigger than tiny Holland's.

    California Reality, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009

  • If the writer whom I quote has reflected upon the meaning of his words, he has seen that the word privation which he uses is synonymous with non-production, and that consequently those for whose benefit taxes are collected are very truly unproductive laborers.

    System of Economical Contradictions: or, the Philosophy of Misery 1888

  • No! The word privation expresses but weakly that constant and terrible want of all that is necessary to preserve the existence God gives; namely, wholesome air and shelter, sufficient and nourishing food and warm clothing.

    The Wandering Jew — Volume 02 Eug��ne Sue 1830

  • No! The word privation expresses but weakly that constant and terrible want of all that is necessary to preserve the existence God gives; namely, wholesome air and shelter, sufficient and nourishing food and warm clothing.

    The Wandering Jew — Complete Eug��ne Sue 1830

  • It's an approach that guarantees only long term privation and nearly inevitable failure.

    P2P Foundation 2008

  • And yet, alongside this privation was a proto-middle-class group of blacks who held the community together.

    American Girl 2009

  • And yet, alongside this privation was a proto-middle-class group of blacks who held the community together.

    American Girl 2009

  • The Fall was brought about by the first sin, which Wyclif characterizes as a privation of God's right in man's soul.

    John Wyclif's Political Philosophy Lahey, Stephen 2006

  • For even contraries have in a sense the same form; for the substance of a privation is the opposite substance, e.g. health is the substance of disease (for disease is the absence of health); and health is the formula in the soul or the knowledge of it.

    Metaphysics Aristotle 2002

  • And I underscore that word privation because recessions, even though they're painful, are not privation.

    Free Agent Nation: How America�s New Independent Workers are Transforming the Way We Live 2001

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