Dictionary

abandon en · NOUN · etymology 2

Pronunciation

• /əˈbɛn.dən/ (New-Zealand)
• (Canada) audio
• /əˈban.dən/ (British, Northern-England, Scotland, Southern, Standard, Wales)
• (US) audio
• /əˈbæn.dən/ (Australia, Canada, General-American, Received-Pronunciation)

Etymology

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

Meanings

1. (countable, uncountable) A yielding to natural impulses or inhibitions; freedom from artificial constraint, with loss of appreciation of consequences. (Now especially in the phrase with abandon.)
   • I envy those chroniclers who assert with reckless but sincere abandon: 'I was there. I saw it happen. It happened thus.' 1954, Gore Vidal, Messiah:
   • The Italian painters have an abandon in their chiar' oscuro which mellows up their flesh tints in a way that no other school can imitate : the frigidity of their outline is another remarkable feature, and the harmony of their impasto is unique. 1846, The New Monthly Magazine and Universal Register, page 453:
   • My dreams were largely based on the works of Dickens (his Mugby Junction stories), Thackeray (Jeames on the Gauge Question), and Arthur Conan Doyle, whose Sherlock Holmes stories I kept devouring with gluttonous abandon. 2026 April 1, Vitali Vitaliev, “Literature on the track”, in RAIL, number 1058, page 68:
   • They needed to have an abandon in their performance that you just can’t get out of people in the middle of the night when they’re barefoot. 2007 November 4, David M. Halbfinger, “The City That Never Sleeps, Comatose”, in The New York Times:
   • with gay abandon, with wild abandon, with reckless abandon
2. (countable, obsolete, uncountable) Abandonment; relinquishment.

Forms

Deriveds

abandonness · abandonly

Synonyms

profligacy · libertinism · unconstraint · abandonment · wantonness · unrestraint

Translations (35)

nl graagte (a giving up to natural impulses) · nl ongedwongenheid (a giving up to natural impulses) · fa بیخیالی (a giving up to natural impulses) · ru необу́зданность (a giving up to natural impulses) · eo senbrideco (a giving up to natural impulses) · sv frigjordhet (a giving up to natural impulses) · de Selbstvergessenheit (a giving up to natural impulses) · fa بیقیدی (a giving up to natural impulses) · ja 奔放自在 (a giving up to natural impulses) · gv lhiggey lesh (a giving up to natural impulses) · eo senĝeneco (a giving up to natural impulses) · nb overgivenhet (a giving up to natural impulses) · ru несде́ржанность (a giving up to natural impulses) · bg безразсъ́дство (a giving up to natural impulses) · nb løssluppenhet (a giving up to natural impulses) · fi huolettomuus (a giving up to natural impulses) · es desenfreno (a giving up to natural impulses) · bg во́лност (a giving up to natural impulses) · de Ungezwungenheit (a giving up to natural impulses) · uk нестри́маність (a giving up to natural impulses) · sv otvungenhet (a giving up to natural impulses) · hu önfeledtség (a giving up to natural impulses) · da løssluppenhed (a giving up to natural impulses) · sv nonchalans (a giving up to natural impulses) · it abbandono (a giving up to natural impulses) · bg своево́лие (a giving up to natural impulses) · ja 自由奔放 (a giving up to natural impulses) · ru бесшаба́шность (a giving up to natural impulses) · ru импульси́вность (a giving up to natural impulses) · pt abandono (a giving up to natural impulses) · de Hingabe (a giving up to natural impulses) · bg необузда́ност (a giving up to natural impulses) · sv hämningslöshet (a giving up to natural impulses) · fi riehakkuus (a giving up to natural impulses) · el εγκατάλειψη (a giving up to natural impulses)