abandon

uh-BAN-duhn/əˈbæn.dən/

8 meanings of abandon

1
leave for goodverbtransitive
To leave a ship, place, position, or person behind for good, often in the face of danger, sometimes in breach of a duty or responsibility.
The captain gave the order to abandon ship as the hull filled with water.
They abandoned the stranded climbers despite promising to wait for them.
UsageFixed in abandon ship, with no article. Often as an adjective: an abandoned car, child or village.
Similardesert, forsake, leave, quit
2
verbtransitive
To stop doing, practicing, or supporting something, or to give up a belief, plan, right, title, or claim for good.
The committee voted to abandon the proposal after months of debate.
Scientists abandoned the theory once new evidence emerged.
UsageMore formal than give up: abandon a plan, a theory, all hope.
Similardrop, scrap, discard, renounce, relinquish
Oppositeadopt, embrace, continue, pursue
3
wild freedomnoununcountable
A yielding to natural impulses without restraint; freedom from self-control, often with little regard for the consequences.
They threw themselves into the festival with complete abandon.
Her abandon on the dance floor drew every eye in the room.
UsageMostly in with abandon, usually strengthened: with wild abandon, with gay abandon.
Similarunrestraint, wantonness, profligacy, libertinism
Oppositerestraint, inhibition, control, moderation
Note
This noun came separately from the French noun abandon; it was not made from the English verb. It now lives mostly in set phrases where an adjective intensifies it: with wild abandon, with gay abandon, with reckless but sincere abandon, as the narrator of Gore Vidal's Messiah has it.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
The noun has a separate French origin rather than being formed from the English verb. en.wiktionary.org

Less common meanings

4
verbtransitive
To give up or relinquish control; to surrender oneself or yield fully to one's emotions.
She abandoned herself to grief when the news arrived.
He would abandon all restraint whenever he heard that song.
UsageUsually abandon yourself to something: grief, music, pleasure.
Similarsurrender, yield, relinquish
Oppositeresist, restrain
Note
The reflexive use keeps the word's oldest picture. Old French abandoner joined a, "to", with bandon, "control", so to abandon yourself is to hand yourself over to another's power. The usual pattern is abandon oneself to something: grief, a song, or, in Macaulay's The History of England, the vice a man liked best. The noun in "with abandon" carries the same loss of restraint.
Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts
Old French abandoner combines a, meaning 'to', with bandon, meaning 'control'. en.wiktionary.org
The reflexive explanation preserves the historical idea of placing oneself under another's control. en.wiktionary.org
Macaulay's The History of England uses the reflexive construction about a man's favourite vice. gutenberg.org
5
verbtransitive
To surrender an insured item to the insurer in order to claim a total loss on it.
The shipowner elected to abandon the vessel to the underwriters after the collision.
Once repairs exceeded the ship's value, the company abandoned it to the insurer.
UsageUsually abandon the item to the insurer or the underwriters.
Similarsurrender
Note
Insurance gives the verb a precise use. The owner abandons the damaged thing to the insurer, handing it over so the claim can be settled as a total loss. It is a deliberate transfer, unlike the everyday 'desert' meaning, where nothing passes to anyone.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Insurance abandonment involves surrendering rights in damaged insured property to the insurer and claiming payment for a total loss. en.wikipedia.org
Abandonment in this insurance sense involves transferring the insured's interest in the property to the insurer. laws.justice.gc.ca
6
verbobsoletetransitive
To cast out, banish, or expel someone; to reject them entirely.
Being all this time abandoned from your bed.
1594, William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew
Note
Shakespeare shows the shape this obsolete meaning took. In The Taming of the Shrew someone has been 'abandoned from your bed': driven away from it, not left behind in it. The giveaway is from, which marks expulsion.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew contains the quoted words; the Page, pretending to be Sly's wife, speaks them to Sly. folger.edu
The quotation illustrates the obsolete sense 'cast out, banish, expel, reject', supporting the interpretation as exclusion from the bed. en.wiktionary.org
7
nounobsoleteuncountable
The act of giving up or relinquishing something completely.
UsageToday the noun is abandonment.
Note
An older noun use that the longer form has replaced. Where earlier English could speak of someone's abandon of a claim, the modern word is abandonment. Readers will take abandon as a noun to mean unrestrained freedom, so an act of giving up would be misread as wild abandon.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Abandon formerly functioned as a noun meaning abandonment or relinquishment. en.wiktionary.org
The relinquishment of a claim is described by the noun abandonment, corresponding to the obsolete noun abandon. en.wiktionary.org
8
verbobsoletetransitive
To subdue someone or something and take control of it.
Note
A meaning that now reads backwards: to bring something under one's own control rather than to let it go. It stays close to the root bandon, 'control', which the living senses have turned on its head. A modern reader would take such a sentence in the 'desert' meaning, the opposite of what was intended.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
Abandon had an obsolete transitive sense meaning to subdue or take control of. en.wiktionary.org
Abandon derives through Old French from elements including bandon, meaning jurisdiction or control. en.wiktionary.org

Practice

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Origins

Meanings 1–2, 4–6, 8

Old French abandoner, made from a ("at, to") and bandon ("jurisdiction, control"), passed into Middle English as abandounen. Bandon derives from Late Latin bannum ("proclamation"), whose source was Frankish *ban. Behind that lies Proto-Germanic *bannaną ("to proclaim, command"), which also gave English ban and ultimately derives from a Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to speak."

Meanings 3, 7

Middle English borrowed abandoun from the Old French noun abandon, which is related to the Old French verb abondonner.