abandonverb [ T ]
uk/əˈbæn.dən/us/əˈbæn.dən/abandon verb [ T ] (LEAVE)
B2 to leave a place, thing, or person, usually for ever:
We had to abandon the car.
By the time the rebel troops arrived, the village had already been abandoned.
As a baby he was abandoned by his mother.
We were sinking fast, and the captain gave the order to abandon ship.
More examples
- If disturbed, the bird may abandon the nest, leaving the chicks to die.
- It was his instinct for self-preservation that led him to abandon his former friends and transfer his allegiance to the new rulers.
- According to an eyewitness account, the thieves abandoned their vehicle near the scene of the robbery and then ran off.
- The police are trying to trace the mother of a newborn baby found abandoned outside a hospital.
- The house had been abandoned for several years before they decided to demolish it.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Departing
- absquatulate
- backward
- be ready to roll idiom
- bog
- bog off
- desertion
- drive
- go down
- hit
- parting
- piss
- push off
- ready
- road
- run
- run away
- sally
- sally forth idiom
- walk out
- without (so much as) a backward glance idiom
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abandon verb [ T ] (STOP)
C1 to stop doing an activity before you have finished it:
The game was abandoned at half-time because of the poor weather conditions.
They had to abandon their attempt to climb the mountain.
The party has now abandoned its policy of unilateral disarmament.
More examples
- Sweden isn't likely ever to abandon its traditional neutrality.
- Pressure to abandon the new motorway is increasing.
- We were unable to get funding and therefore had to abandon the project.
- A lot of farming techniques have been abandoned because they were too labour-intensive.
- Most European countries have abandoned laws that make vagrancy a crime.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Causing something to end
- all good things (must) come to an end idiom
- and have done with it idiom
- be over the hump idiom
- bitter
- break away
- draw
- lay
- lay sth to rest idiom
- lay the ghost of sth (to rest) idiom
- leave it at that idiom
- leave off (sth/doing sth)
- let sb be idiom
- lift
- raise
- stone-dead
- the curtain falls on sth idiom
- to the bitter end idiom
- top sth off
- walk
- walk away
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abandon yourself to sth
to allow yourself to be controlled completely by a feeling or way of living:
He abandoned himself to his emotions.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Expressing and showing feelings
- affective
- be in/get into a state idiom
- beat your breast/chest idiom
- beetroot
- blush
- bubble
- expression
- flame
- impassioned
- lose it idiom
- marvel
- moved
- overflow
- pine
- throw
- vocalize
- wear your heart on your sleeve idiom
- whimper
- wring
- wring your hands idiom
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abandoned
adjective uk/əˈbæn.dənd/us/əˈbæn.dənd/
B2
An abandoned baby was found in a box on the hospital steps.
abandonment
noun [ U ] uk/əˈbæn.dən.mənt/us/əˈbæn.dən.mənt/
The abandonment of the island followed nuclear tests in the area.
abandonnoun
uk/əˈbæn.dən/us/əˈbæn.dən/literarywith (gay/wild) abandon
in a completely uncontrolled way:
We danced with wild abandon.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Pleasure and happiness
- afterglow
- bed
- bed of roses idiom
- bliss
- bonus
- delirium
- exaltation
- feast
- felicity
- fulfilment
- fun
- gaiety
- glad
- goody
- joy
- joyful
- joyous
- jubilation
- mirth
- savour
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