abandon verb [ T ] (LEAVE)
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
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.
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
- all good things (must) come to an end idiom
- and have done with it idiom
- be over the hump idiom
- bitter
- break away
- cure
- knock off (sth)
- lay
- lay sth to rest idiom
- lay the ghost of sth (to rest) idiom
- leave it at that idiom
- leave off (sth/doing sth)
- lid
- lift
- raise
- suppression
- the curtain falls on sth idiom
- to the bitter end idiom
- top sth off
- walk
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
abandoned
adjective uk
/əˈbæn.dənd/ us
/əˈbæn.dənd/
with (gay/wild) abandon
› in a completely uncontrolled way:
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
