Dictionary

abacinate en · VERB

Pronunciation

• /əbˈæsɪneɪt/ (UK)
• (UK) audio

Etymology

From Late Latin abacinātus, perfect passive participle of abacinō; possibly formed from ab (“off”) + bacīnum (“a basin”) or bacīnus. Probably cognate with modern Italian abbacinare (“to dazzle”).

Meanings

1. (rare, transitive) To blind by holding a red-hot metal rod or plate before the eyes
   • Their straining eyes abacinated by the cup of terror, their throats stopped, their powers dead within them, they hung breathless, motionless. 1945, Robert Hardy Andrews, Burning Gold, page 196:
   • Abacinate, eyes that bleed, praying for the end of your wide awake nightmare. 1986, Jeff Hanneman, “Angel of Death”, in Reign in Blood, performed by Slayer:
   • "You young scapegrace," said Dandolo, "I will myself abacinate you — in the Venetian way." "How's that?" "Blind your eyes with the glare, not of hot irons, but of new ducats. Count your pile." 1905, James M. Ludlow, Sir Raoul, page 233:
   • This chiasmic image of the subject's imperviousness suggests a sensory deprivation beyond sublimity, like that of abacinated anti-epistemology. 1999, Srinivas Aravamudan, Tropicopolitans, →ISBN, page 220:

Forms

Deriveds

abacination

Translations (1)

pt abacinar (to blind by holding a red-hot metal rod or plate before the eyes)