ENGLISH
REFERENCE

abandon

n.
B2 Upper Intermediate Oxford US //əˈbændən// UK //ɐbˈændən// aban·don Academic Archaic General-service

n. a feeling of complete freedom and lack of control. When you do something with abandon, you don't worry about rules or what other people think.

n. a complete lack of inhibition or restraint; a state of acting with total freedom. Uncountable; typically formal or literary in register.


SIMPLE

The children play outside with wild abandon.

CONTEXTUAL

After their final exam, the students celebrated with reckless abandon, enjoying their newfound freedom.

COMPLEX

The artist painted with a furious abandon, splashing colors onto the canvas in a creative frenzy that ignored all conventional techniques.

Synonyms
Etymology 1

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.

Etymology 2

From Middle English abandoun, from Old French abandon, from Old French abondonner.

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