Abandonment Meaning
/əˈbæn.d(ə)n.m(ə)nt/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounThe act of abandoning, or the state of being abandoned; total desertion; relinquishment.
nounThe voluntary leaving of a person to whom one is bound by a special relation, as a wife, husband or child; desertion.
Sentence Examples
She's afraid of abandonment.
Layla was a teenager and she couldn't handle her abandonment by herself.
Yanni needs to get over his fear of abandonment.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ of the project was due to a lack of funding.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The sudden ____ of the project left many employees confused.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from French abandonnement, from abandonner (“to abandon, relinquish”). abandonner was originally equivalent to mettre à bandon (“to leave to the jurisdiction, i.e. of another”), bandon being from Medieval Latin bandum, bannum (“order, decree, ban”). Equivalent to abandon + -ment. (See also English banns.)
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"To what are we reserved? An adequate compensation "for the sacrifice of powers the most nearly connected with us;"— an adequate compensation "for the direct or indirect annexation to France ot all the ports of the continent, from Dunkirk to Hamburgh;"— an adequate compensation "for the abandonment of the independence of Europe!""
— 1790-1800, Edmund Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace:
"The fate of the railway from Ballater to Braemar has been invested with an air of mystery, which has never been completely dispelled. It has been suggested that Queen Victoria was opposed to a railway in the vicinity of Balmoral Castle, and intervened personally to secure the abandonment of the line beyond Ballater."
— 1957 January 26, H. A. Vallance, “The Deeside Railway—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 6:
"The railway was in fact shifted in 1937 a little to the west, over a distance of a quarter-mile, to make room for the by-pass at this point, but complete abandonment was firmly vetoed because of the proved strategic value of the line."
— 1955 March, T. B. Sands, “The Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 191:
"Roger, in terms of the strengths he brought to the band, was wild abandonment. So if Howard was in the pocket, Roger was bouncing off the walls, and Nancy was somewhere in the middle."
— 2008, Jake Brown, Heart: In the Studio:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The ____ of the project was due to a lack of funding.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The sudden ____ of the project left many employees confused.