Abject

Definition: Abject

Abject

Adjective

1. Of the most contemptible kind; "abject cowardice"; "a low stunt to pull"; "a low-down sneak"; "his miserable treatment of his family"; "You miserable skunk!"; "a scummy rabble"; "a scurvy trick".

2. Most unfortunate or miserable; "the most abject slaves joined in the revolt"; "abject poverty".

3. Showing utter resignation or hopelessness; "abject surrender".

4. Showing humiliation or submissiveness; "an abject apology".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "abject" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1321. (references)

Dream Interpretation

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Synonyms: Abject

Cowardice

Poltroonery, baseness; dastardness, dastardy; abject fear, funk; Dutch courage; fear; white feather, faint heart; cold feet , yellow streak.

Disrepute

Ignominious, scrubby, dirty, abject, vile, beggarly, pitiful, low, mean, shabby base; (dishonorable).

Fear

Nervousness, restlessness; Adjective: inquietude, disquietude, worry, concern; batophobia; heartquake; flutter, trepidation, fear and trembling, perturbation, tremor, quivering, shaking, trembling, throbbing heart, palpitation, ague fit, cold sweat; abject fear; (cowardice); mortal funk, heartsinking, despondency; despair.

Improbity

Contemptible, unrespectable, abject, mean, shabby, little, paltry, dirty, scurvy, scabby, sneaking, groveling, scrubby, rascally, pettifogging; beneath one.

Servility

Adjective: servile, obsequious; supple,supple as a glove; soapy, oily, pliant, cringing, abased, dough-faced, fawning, slavish, groveling, sniveling, mealy-mouthed; beggarly, sycophantic, parasitical; abject, prostrate, down on ones marrowbones; base, mean, sneaking; crouching; Verb:

Crosswords: Abject

French (abandoned, abhorrent, abject, abominable, alien, awful, base, despicable, gruesome, hideous, horrible, low, nasty, vile), Romanian (abject, abjectly, cringing, low, mean, miserable, nefarious, slavish).

Books

• Abject Art: Repulsion and Desire in American Art (Isp Papers, No 3) (reference)

• Abject Loyalty: Nationalism and Monarchy in Ireland During the Reign of Queen Victoria (reference)

• Bitter Carnival: Ressentiment and the Abject Hero [DOWNLOAD: ADOBE READER] (reference)

• Fast Track to Failure: A User's Guide to Abject Misery (reference)

• Hume's Abject Failure: The Argument Against Miracles (reference)

  (more book examples)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

To the gentlemen he was abject. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

The den into which his eyes were at that moment directed, was abject, filthy, fetid, infectious, gloomy, unclean

When the agony of shame had passed from him he tried to raise his soul from its abject powerlessness

They are strong and hardy, but of a cowardly spirit, and by consequence, insolent, abject, and cruel

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Children

Mexico

Scholarships offered to families of the abject poor under the Government's "Progresa" antipoverty program kept an additional 100,000 children in school in 1999, and according to Progresa, that number increased by 18 percent in 2000. Progresa incorporated 763,000 new families into the program during the year. (references)

India

There is serious concern regarding the striking disparities in terms of access to education, attendance at primary and secondary levels and drop-out rates between: different states, rural and urban areas, boys and girls, the affluent and the poor, and children belonging to scheduled castes and tribes." Child welfare organizations estimate that there are 500,000 street children nationwide living in abject poverty. (references)

Economic History

Cambodia

The regime controlled every aspect of life and reduced everyone to the level of abject obedience through terror. (references)

Human Rights

Rwanda

The shortage of lawyers and the abject poverty of most defendants make it difficult for many defendants to obtain legal representation. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Expressions using "abject": abject behaviour ♦ abject poverty. Additional references.

Afrikaans

beroerd (bad, dismal, meager, miserable, nasty, poor, wretched). (various references)

Albanian

i ndyrë (atrocious, bloody, contaminated, cotton-picking, crappy, dirty, filthy, foul, hoggish, horrid, lousy, low, low down, mangy, muddy, nasty, piggish, puddly, salacious, shut in, sordid, squalid, stained, stinking, vile, villainous), i mjerë (crummy, desolate, dismal, forlorn, ill fated, ill-starred, infelicitous, lowlife, miserable, paltry, penurious, pimping, piteous, sorry, unhappy, unlucky, worm). (various references)

Arabic 

‏متذلل (obsequious, servile, submissive, subservient), ‏حقير (base, beggarly, blackguardly, cheap, despicable, dingy, dirty, frowzy, grubby, ignoble, inferior, insignificant, lousy, low, low down, lowly, mean, menial, niggling, paltry, pettifogger, petty, pip squeak, pitiable, pitiful, poor, popinjay, rotten, scabby, scaly, scoundrelly, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, servile, shabby, shoddy, slavish, slim, slushy, small minded, snide, sod, squalid, swine, tacky, trifling, ungracious, unworthy, varmint, vile, villainous, worthless, wretched), ‏خسيس (base, contemptible, dastardly, despicable, ignoble, loon, lousy, low, lowly, mean, paltry, pooch, reptile, ruffian, scruffy, servile, shabby, shoddy, sleazy, small change, sordid, vile, villainous), ‏بائس حقير. (various references)

Bulgarian 

унизителен (degrading, humiliating, vile), окаян (beggarly, deplorable, despicable, forlorn, miserable, reprobate, squalid, wretched), нещастен (hapless, ill fated, ill-starred, inauspicious, lack-all, lorn, poor, sick, unblessed, unchancy, unfortunate, unhappy, unlucky, woeful, wretched), низък (base, contemptible, degraded, ignoble, low down, low-minded, mangy, mean, mean-spirited, miscreant, paltry, scaly, scurvy, unworthy, vile, villainous, yellow), мизерен (flea-bitten, mangy, miserable, poverty stricken, ratty, sordid, squalid, wretched), жалък (lamentable, mangy, miserable, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, pokey, poor, sad, scabbed, scabby, scaly, scrubby, sorrowful, sorry, squalid, woeful), долен (base, bottom, contemptible, currish, ignoble, ignominious, infamous, inferior, iniquitous, low, lower, low-grade, mangy, mean, mean-spirited, rascal, ratty, reptile, rotten, scaly, scurvy, shady, under, unworthy, vile, villainous). (various references)

Chinese 

卑怯 (mean and cowardly), 不幸 (hapless, misfortune, unfortunate, unhappiness, unlucky). (various references)

Czech

ponížený (humble, humiliated), patolízalský (obsequious, smarmy, sycophantic), opovrženíhodný (contemptible, despicable), bídný (bad, eagre, low down, mean, miserable, pitiful, scurvy, sordid, squalid, wretched). (various references)

Dutch

nietswaardig (worthless). (various references)

Esperanto

mizera (dismal, meager, miserable, wretched), malnobla (base, low, nasty, vile), malestiminda. (various references)

Faeroese

neyðars (dismal, meager, miserable, poor, wretched), neyðar (dismal, meager, miserable, wretched). (various references)

Farsi 

فرومایه (Base, Brassy, Currish, Ignoble, Knave, Low, Vile), پست کردن (Abase, Debase, Degrade, Demean, Disparage, Disrate, Humble, Humiliate, Mortify, Post), پست (Abacinate, Cheap, Common, Currish, Despicable, Earthborn, Humble, Infamous, Inferior, Lily, Little, Mail, Menial, Peevish, Poor, Runty, Ungenerous, Venal, Vile, Villain, Villainous, Vulgar, Wretch, Wretched), مطرود (Castaway, Despicable, Outcast, Rejcet), کوچک کردن (Extenuate, Fine, Playdown), تحقیرکردن (Calldown, Despise, Humiliate, Score), سرافکنده (Ashamed), خوار (Despicable, Lowly, Wretch), روی برتافتن . (various references)

French

abject (abandoned, abhorrent, abominable). (various references)

Frisian

skiterich (dismal, meager, miserable, wretched), heukerich (dismal, meager, miserable, poor, wretched), earmoedig (dismal, meager, miserable, wretched), earmhertich (dismal, meager, miserable, wretched). (various references)

German

elend (awful, calamitous, calamitously, calamitousness, confounded, destitution, dismal, distress, dreadful, hardship, meager, miserable, miserably, misery, penury, pitiable, pitiful, plight, poorly, poverty, sick, sordid, sordidness, squalid, squalor, unhappiness, woeful, woefully, woefulness, wretched, wretchedly, wretchedness), verächtlich (abjectly, abjekt, contemptible, contemptuous, contemptuously, despicable, despicably, disdainful, disdainfully, opprobrious, scoffing, scoffingly, scornful, scornfully), erbärmlich (abjectly, depressingly, disgraceful, disgracefully, dismal, hideous, lamentable, lamentably, meager, miserable, miserably, paltrily, paltry, pathetically, piteous, piteously, pitiable, pitiful, pitifully, poor, sordid, squalid, terrible, wretched). (various references)

Greek 

καταπτοήμενοσ, περιφρονήτεοσ, χαμερωπήσ, ελεεινόσ (beggarly, deplorable, disgraceful, forlorn, haggard, miserable, piteous, pitiable, scrub, scrubby, seedy, sorry, wretched), άθλιοσ (beastly, beggarly, caitiff, forlorn, miserable, putrid, scullion, squalid, unblessed, Unblest, villainous, wretched), άθλιος (lousy, miserable, squalid), αξιοθρήνητοσ (deplorable, lamentable), απόκληροσ (outcast), απόβλητοσ (cast off, outcast, pariah), απεχθήσ (abhorrent, abominable, loathful, loathsome, obnoxious, odious, repugnant, revolting), απελπισμένοσ (desolate, despairing, desperate, hopeless), ταπεινόσ (humble, low, lowly, menial, reverent, unobtrusive, unpretentious), ταπεινός (humble, self-effacing), ταπεινωτικόσ (abasing), δουλικόσ (servile, slavish, subservient). (various references)

Hebrew 

עלוב (god forsaken, humbled, mean, measly, miserable, pitiful, poor, seamy, worthless, wretched), בזוי (abasement, abashment, contempt, contemptible, cursed, deprecation, despicable, despised, despising, ignominius, measly, menial, pitiful, vile). (various references)

Hungarian

alávaló (despicable, dirty, dungy, foul, nefarious, perfidious, pitiful, rascally, scurvy). (various references)

Indonesian

pengecut (coward, dastard, faint, faint-hearted, poltroon, sneak, unmanly, white-livered), keji (villainous). (various references)

Italian

miserabile (despicable, dismal, meager, mean, measly, miserable, misery, poor, poverty stricken, sorry, unhappiness, wretch, wretched, wretchedness), spregevole (contemptible, currish, degraded, despicable, mangy, mean), povero (arm, bare, beggarly, dismal, indigent, meager, meagre, miserable, needy, poor, poor man, unfortunate, wretched), misero (dismal, forlorn, meager, mean, miserable, narrow, poor, poverty stricken, scanty, spare, squalid, unfortunate, wretched). (various references)

Japanese Kanji 

卑屈 (meanness, menial, servility). (various references)

Japanese Katakana 

ひくつ (meanness, menial, servility), あさましい (despicable, mean, miserable, shameful, wretched). (various references)

Korean 

비참한 (Disastrous, miserable, Wretched). (various references)

Manx

treih (deplorable, doughy, drawn, feeble, forlorn, fragile, haggard, miserable, pale, pale-faced, pallid, pasty, pathetic, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, regrettable, rueful, sallow, seedy, sickly, wan, wretched, wretched of thing), kercheenagh (cringing, cullionly, dependent, down-and-out, impoverished, impoverishing, miserable, rotten, servile, shabby, slavish, truckle, vile, vile morally). (various references)

Norwegian

ynke. (various references)

Papiamen

abominabel (abhorrent, abominable, abysmal, alien, awful, disdainful, disgusting, dismal, dreadful, dreary, ghastly, gruesome, hideous, horrible, nasty, nauseous, terrible), miserabel (dismal, meager, miserable, wretched), despresiabel, desastroso (catastrophic, miserable), baho (base, low, nasty, vile). (various references)

Pig Latin

abjectay.(various references)

Portuguese

miserável (costive, dismal, evil, godforsaken, logy, meager, misbegotten, miscreant, miserable, miserly, paltry, picayune, pimping, poky, poor, rascally, scaly, scoundrel, scurvy, skinflint, sordid, squalid, wretch, wretched), desprezível (beggarly, caitiff, contemptible, despicable, lily-livered, little, mean, negligible, paltry, peddling, picayune, pitiable, reptile, scurvy, trashy, unworthy, worthless). (various references)

Romanian

abject (abjectly, cringing, low, mean, miserable, nefarious, slavish), nenorocit (baleful, disastrous, forlorn, grievous, grub, hapless, lame duck, mean, measly, miser, miserable, pilgarlic, rascal, rotten, sad, scullion, unfortunate, unhappy, wretch, wretched), nemaipomenit (bright, bully, egregious, lovely, lumme, magnificent, nut, priceless, sad, tremendous, unbelievable, unheard of, unparalleled, unprecedented), mizerabil (despicable, dirty, godforsaken, grovelling, miserable, miserably, pitiable, unlucky, villainous, wretch, wretched), josnic (base, base-minded, despicable, dirty, grovelling, grubby, infamous, little, low, low-minded, mean, meanly, nasty, paltry, scurrilous, scurvy, shabby, slavish, sordid, sordidly, vile), extrem (exceeding, excessive, extreme, extremely, furthermost, furthest, greatest, highest, like hell, outermost, paramount, steep, supreme, ultimate, unmitigated, utmost, uttermost), desperat (desperado, desperate, desperately, forlorn, gone, hopeless, madman, pathetic, pathetically, temerarious). (various references)

Russian 

жалкий (forlorn, paltry, pathetic, pimping, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, scrubby, woeful, wretched). (various references)

Scottish

dìblidh. (various references)

Serbo-Croatian

preziran (contemptible, contemptuous), ponizan (humble, lowly), podao (caitiff, knavish, lousy, low down, scurvy, vile), bedan (beggarly, crummy, distressful, lamentable, mangy, miserable, needy, pelting, pitiable, poor, rubbishy, squalid, wretched). (various references)

Spanish

miserable (beggarly, dismal, meager, measly, miserable, moldy, mouldy, paltry, poor, sordid, squalid, twopenny, wretched), abyecto, vil (contemptible, cur, despicable, foul, lousy, low, low down, lower, mean, mean-spirited, miserable, nefarious, rotten, scurvily, scurvy, sordid, squalid, vile), pobre (beggar, destitute, dismal, hungry, impecunious, indigent, jimp, meager, meagre, mingy, miserable, miserly, needy, pathetic, pathetical, pauper, penurious, poor, scrappy, wretched), necesitado (dismal, in need, meager, miserable, necessitous, needy, poor, taken, underprivileged, wretched), menesteroso (dismal, meager, miserable, needy, poverty stricken, underprivileged, wretched), despreciable (contemptible, crummy, despicable, miserable, negligible, pitiful, scabby, scornful, twopenny). (various references)

Swedish

föraktlig (contemptible, despicable, ignoble). (various references)

Turkish

alçak (abandoned, base, baseborn, blackguard, contemptible, cowardly, dastardly, heel, humble, ignoble, lousy, low, low down, lowrise, misbegotten, nasty, nefarious, no good, rascally, ravisher, recreant, scoundrel, scoundrelly, short, sneak, sneaking, sneaky, sordid, squat, swab, swob, vile, villainous), adi (base, camp, campy, cheap jack, chintzy, coarse, coarse grained, common, common as dirt, commonplace, contemptible, dastardly, despicable, everyday, groveling, grovelling, gutter, hackneyed, jerkwater, little, low, low class, mean, measly, no class, one horse, ordinary, ornery, picayune, picayunish, poky, rubbishy, shoddy, slavish, sleazy, twopenny, twopenny-halfpenny, vile, vulgar, wormy, yellow dog), aşağılık (base, baseness, contemptible, dirty, groveling, grovelling, ignoble, ignominious, inferiority, low down, lowness, mean, no class, no good, pettiness, petty, rascally, reptilian, scabby, scurvy, slavish, snotty, sordid, tinpot, unutterable, unworthy, vile, wicked, wormy), sefil (beggarly, dead end, destitute, down and out, down at heels, hangdog, miserable, poor, poverty stricken, rep, ropy, shabby, sordid, squalid, starveling, wretch, wretched), rezil (contemptible, crud, dirty, dishonorable, dishonourable, disreputable, flagitious, flagrant, groveling, grovelling, ignoble, ignominious, infamous, low down, outrageous, raffish, rascal, scandal, scandalous, scoundrel, shameful, sinner, stinking, sweep, vile, villainous). (various references)

Ukrainian

огидний (abhorrent, abominable, accursed, accurst, antipathetic, antipathetical, atrocious, beastly, bilious, brackish, brutal, carrion, damnable, damned, detestable, disgusting, dreadful, evil, execrable, filthy, ghoulish, grim, hanging, heinous, hideous, horrible, horrid, ill-favored, ill-favoured, loathful, loathsome, mawkish, mucky, nasty, nauseating, nauseous, nefandous, noisome, obnoxious, obscene, odious, offensive, pesky, poisonous, putrid, rank, repellent, repulsive, revolting, shocking, snotty, sordid, sour, stinking, underfoot, wicked), нещасний (disastrous, poor, sinister, unfortunate, wretched), мерзенний (abhorrent, abominable, atrocious, caitiff, ghoulish, hangdog, hateful, heinous, nasty, nefandous, nefarious, niddering, odious, sordid, villainous, wretched), жалюгідний (beggarly, caitiff, contemptible, deplorable, forlorn, impoverished, lamentable, mean, miserable, parsimonious, piteous, pitiable, pitiful, poor, queachy, snide, sorry, tatty, woeful, woesome, wretched), принижений (diminished, humiliated), паскудний (bawdy, cheesy, nasty, obscene, scald, trashy, vile). (various references)

Vietnamese 

thấp hèn (small), khốn nạn, hèn hạ (base, basely, blithering, despicable, dirtily, dirty, dishonourable, meanly, picayune, poor, scabbily, scurvy, shabby, vile), đê tiện (contemptible, hangdog, ignoble, ignominious, lousily, plebeian, scabbily, scabby, scaly, scurvy, servile, shabby, small), đáng khinh khốn khổ. (various references)

Welsh

distadl (base, insignificant, low, mean), dirmygedig (scorned). (various references)

abjectus, proiecta, proiecti, proiectis, proiecto, proiectum, proiectus. (various references)

Derivations

Words beginning with "abject": abjection, abjections, abjectly, abjectness, abjectnesses. (additional references)

Misspellings

"Abject" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: abec, abiect, abjunct, ajet, aubjects, bject. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

-2 letters: abet, bate, beat, beta, cate, tace.

-3 letters: ace, act, ate, bat, bet, cab, cat, eat, eta, jab, jet, tab, tae, taj, tea.

-4 letters: ab, ae, at, ba, be, et, ta.

+2 letters: abjectly.

+3 letters: abjection, ejectable, subjacent.

+4 letters: abjections, abjectness, bluejacket, injectable, jackbooted.

+5 letters: bluejackets, injectables, justiciable, projectable, subjacently.