abandon.
To give up or relinquish control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions.
Meaning & usage
To give up or relinquish control of, to surrender or to give oneself over, or to yield to one's emotions.
To desist in doing, practicing, following, holding, or adhering to; to turn away from; to permit to lapse; to renounce; to discontinue.
To leave behind; to desert, as in a ship, a position, or a person, typically in response to overwhelming odds or impending dangers; to forsake, in spite of a duty or responsibility.
Many baby girls have been abandoned on the streets of Beijing.
He was abandoned on the island with no one to help him.
To subdue; to take control of.
To cast out; to banish; to expel; to reject.
To no longer exercise a right, title, or interest, especially with no interest of reclaiming it again; to yield; to relinquish.
I hereby abandon my position as manager.
To surrender to the insurer (an insured item), so as to claim a total loss.
Where this word comes from
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₂éd Proto-Italic *ad Latin ad Old French a Proto-Germanic *bannanąder. Frankish *bannder. Old French ban Proto-Indo-European *deh₃- Proto-Indo-European *-r̥ Proto-Indo-European *dóh₃r̥ ~ *déh₃n̥s Proto-Indo-European *-om Proto-Indo-European *déh₃nom Proto-Italic *dōnom Proto-Indo-European *-h₂ Proto-Indo-European *-éh₂ Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *-eh₂yéti Proto-Indo-European *-h₂tiinflu. Proto-Italic *-ājō Proto-Italic *-āō Proto-Italic *dōnāō? Latin donāre Old French doner Old French a ban doner Old French abandonerder. Middle English abandounen English abandon From Middle English abandounen, from Old French abandoner, formed from a (“at, to”) + bandon (“jurisdiction, control”), from Late Latin bannum (“proclamation”), bannus, bandum, from Frankish *ban, *bann, from Proto-Germanic *bannaną (“to proclaim, command”) (whence English ban), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeh₂- (“to speak”). See also ban, banal. Displaced Middle English forleten (“to abandon”), from Old English forlǣtan, anforlǣtan; see forlet; and Middle English forleven (“to leave behind, abandon”), from Old English forlǣfan; see forleave. Compare typologically abdicate, Russian отказа́ться (otkazátʹsja) (akin to приказа́ть (prikazátʹ), сказа́ть (skazátʹ), указа́ть (ukazátʹ)).
A yielding to natural impulses or inhibitions; freedom from artificial constraint, with loss of appreciation of consequences. (Now especially in the phrase with abandon.)
with gay abandon, with wild abandon, with reckless abandon
Abandonment; relinquishment.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English abandoun, from Old French abandon, from Old French abondonner.
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.