Abstain

Definitions: Abstain

Abstain

Verb

1. Refrain from voting.

2. Choose to refrain; "I abstain from alcohol".

Date "abstain" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1010. (references)

Synonyms: Abstain

Synonyms: desist (v), refrain (v). (additional references)

Antonym: consume (v). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Absence of Choice	Verb: be neutral; Adjective: have no choice, have no election; waive, not vote; abstain from voting, refrain from voting; leave undecided; "make a virtue of necessity".
Avoidance	Verb: abstain, refrain, spare, not attempt; not do; maintain the even tenor of one's way.
Disuse	Verb: not use; do without, dispense with, let alone, not touch, forbear, abstain, spare, waive, neglect; keep back, reserve. lay up, lay by, lay on the shelf, keep on the shelf,lay up in ordinary; lay up in a napkin; shelve; set aside, put aside, lay aside; disuse, leave off, have done with; supersede; discard; (eject); dismiss, give warning.
Inaction	Verb: not do, not act, not attempt; be inactive; abstain from doing, do nothing, hold, spare; not stir, not move, not lift a finger, not lift a foot, not lift a peg; fold one's arms, fold one's hands; leave alone, let alone; let be, let pass, let things take their course, let it have its way, let well alone, let well enough alone; quieta non movere; stare super antiquas vias; rest and be thankful, live and let live; lie rest upon one's oars; laisser aller, faire; stand aloof; refrain; (avoid) keep oneself from doing; remit one's efforts, relax one's efforts; desist; (relinquish); stop; (cease); pause; (be quiet).
Temperance	Verb: be temperate; Adjective: abstain, forbear, refrain, deny oneself, spare,swear off.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Crosswords: Abstain

English words defined with "abstain": Abstained, Abstaining ♦ Dehort, desist ♦ fast ♦ Nazarite ♦ refrain ♦ swear off ♦ To keep from, To pair off, To swear off. (references)

Specialty definitions using "abstain": Ale-dagger ♦ Melanuros ♦ Pork! Pork! ♦ Rechabites. (references)

Etymologies containing "abstain": Abstention, Abstinence. (references)

Domain	Title
Books	50 Ways & 50 Reasons You Can Abstain From Sex: & Why AIDS Will Make You 100% Glad You Did, Kid! (reference) The Grace to Abstain (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Claude Bernard	True science teaches us to doubt and to abstain from ignorance.
Epictetus	All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.
Friedrich Nietzsche	These people abstain, it is true: but the bitch Sensuality glares enviously out of all they do.
St. Augustine	To abstain from sin when one can no longer sin is to be forsaken by sin, not to forsake it.
Zoroaster	When you doubt, abstain.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Author	Date	Quotation
The Emancipation Proclamation	1862	And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to be free to abstain from all violence, unless in necessary self-defence; and I recommend to them that, in all case when allowed, they labor faithfully for reasonable wages. (Abraham Lincoln)
Treaty of Versailles	1919	Until the evacuation is completed they will abstain from all requisitions in money or in kind and from all measures injurious to the economic interests of the country. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
Walden	Thoreau, Henry David	During this fast they abstain from the gratification of every appetite and passion whatever.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		Some people choose to abstain from alcohol. (references)
		Abstain from or strictly limit alcohol consumption. (references)
		Infected persons should be advised to reduce alcohol intake and to abstain from using illicit drugs. (references)
Economic History	Bangladesh	In June 1999, the BNP and other opposition parties again began to abstain from attending Parliament. (references)
	Bulgaria	If the party is seeking a judicial request to act or abstain from acting, the final judgment must be brought before an executive judge. (references)
	Portugal	The 2001 budget faced even more difficulty, and the PS had to convince one opposition party member to abstain to garner a majority of votes and pass the budget. (references)
Human Rights	Lebanon	The authorities allegedly forced most of them to sign affidavits stating that they would abstain from politics and released them within 2 weeks after their arrests. (references)
Political Rights	Bangladesh	BNP member Major (retired) Akhtaruzzaman lost his seat in 2000 when he joined the parliamentary session in violation of his Party's decision to abstain. (references)
Travel	Saudi Arabia	During Ramadan devout Muslims abstain from food and drink during daylight hours. (references)
Worker Rights	Venezuela	The law also prohibits employers from interfering in the formation of unions or in their activities and from stipulating as a condition of employment that new workers must abstain from union activity or must join a specified union. (references)
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Andrew Jackson	1829-1837	The officers and agents of the General Government might not always have the discretion to abstain from intermeddling with State concerns, and if they did they would not always escape the suspicion of having done so.
James K. Polk	1845-1849	While the General Government should abstain from the exercise of authority not clearly delegated to it, the States should be equally careful that in the maintenance of their rights they do not overstep the limits of powers reserved to them.
Abraham Lincoln	1861-1865	As a general rule, I abstain from reading the reports of attacks upon myself, wishing not to be provoked by that to which I can not properly offer an answer.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Abstain" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 84.26% of the time. "Abstain" is used about 108 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)

Parts of Speech	Percent	Usage per 100 Million Words	Rank in English
Lexical Verb (infinitive)	84.26%	91	34,491
Lexical Verb (base form)	8.33%	9	117,287
Noun (singular)	6.48%	7	133,076
Adjective (general or positive)	0.93%	1	339,140
Total	100.00%	108	N/A

Expressions using "abstain": abstain from ♦ abstain from comment ♦ abstain from voting ♦ induce to abstain. Additional references.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.

Language		Translations for "abstain"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		abstenoj. (various references)

Arabic		‏زهد (asceticism, induce to abstain, plainness, renounce, soberness, temperance), ‏إمتنع (abstain from, refrain), ‏إمتناع عن (abstention). (various references)

Bulgarian		въздържам се от (abstain from, avoid, eschew, forego, forgo, resist), пазя се от (abstain from). (various references)

Chinese		�' (Abstained, Abstaining, Abstention). (various references)

Czech		abstinovat, zdržet se (forbear, hold in, refrain, stay), nepít. (various references)

Danish		afholde sig fra at stemme (to abstain from voting), de afholder sig fra at traeffe foranstaltninger,der er egnede til at... (they shall abstain from any measure which could). (various references)

Dutch		zich onthouden, zich abstineren. (various references)

Esperanto		abstini, sindeteni, deteni sin. (various references)

Farsi		پرهیزکردن(از). (various references)

Finnish		pidättyä (check oneself, contain oneself, restrain oneself), pidättäytyä, kieltäytyä (decline, give up, refrain, refuse, refuse a person something). (various references)

French		s'abstenir. (various references)

German		sich enthalten (abstainer). (various references)

Greek		απέχω (be distant, desist, eschew, forbear, forgo, hold off, refrain, stand off, to be off work). (various references)

Hawaiian		abstenoj. (various references)

Hebrew		לח�"ול מן- (desist), ל�"מ� ע (avoid, eschew, refrain, shun, steer clear of), ל�"תאפק (control oneself, hold in, refrain), ל�"ת� זר (deny onself, give up, shun). (various references)

Hungarian		tartózkodik valamitõl (beware of, forbear). (various references)

Icelandic		halda sig frá. (various references)

Indonesian		absten, menjauhkan diri, bertarak, berpantang. (various references)

Italian		astenersi (forbear, refrain). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		謹む (to abstain or refrain, to be careful, to be chaste or discreet), 慎む (to abstain or refrain, to be careful, to be chaste or discreet), 棄権 (abstain from voting, renunciation of a right). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		たつ (dragon, fifth sign of Chinese zodiac, promoted rook, to abstain, to be built, to be erected, to cut, to cut off, to depart, to erect, to initiateaction, to lapse, to pass, to rise up, to sever, to stand, to suppress), きけ�" (abstain from voting, atmosphere, danger, distinguished person, hazard, peril, renunciation of a right), さけ�'つつしむ (to abstain from drinking), つつしむ (to abstain or refrain, to be careful, to be chaste or discreet), もくじきしょうに�" (holy men who abstain from meat and cooked food). (various references)

Manx		obbal (abnegate; refusal, abnegation, abstention, decline, denial, denounce, denunciation, deny, disavow, disavowal, disclaim, disown, forbid, go against, jib, negate, negation, refuse, refusing, refutation, refute, self-denial, turn down, turn down refuse), faagail jeh (abstention, abstinence, keep off). (various references)

Pig Latin		abstainay.(various references)

Portuguese		abster-se de (forbear, forgo, refrain, refrain from, scorn), abster-se (fast), privar-se de (refrain, spare), evitar (avert, avoid, bypass, elude, eschew, evade, fence, flee, foil, forbear, funky, give a cold shoulder to, keep off, Parry, preclude, prevent, refrain, shirk, shun, stave off, to avoid, turn a cold shoulder to). (various references)

Romanian		abţine (refrain, refuse, subdue), se abţine (draw the rein, hold one's hand, spare into), opri (abate, arrest, balk, bar, baulk, break, bring to, bring to a stop, call off, circumvent, clog, collar, contain, curb, cut off, deflate, delay, discontinue, end, estop, forbear, forbid, foreclose, halt, hinder, hold, inhibit, interdict, keep back, phase out, prohibit, pull up, put a stopper on, put out, quench, restrain, retain, shut out, snag, staunch, stay, stem, stop, strangle, subside, taboo, withhold). (various references)

Russian		воздерживаться (desist, forbear, forebear, keep, refrain). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		apstinirati, uzdržati se (contain, forego, hold back, refrain, restrain oneself). (various references)

Spanish		abstenerse (forbear, keep from, refrain, stop oneself). (various references)

Swedish		avstå (cede, desist, give up, refrain, relinquish, resign). (various references)

Turkish		sakınmak (avoid, be careful not to, be cautious, be wary of, be wary of doing smth., beg, beware, cradle, eschew, evade, flee from, flinch, forbear, hang back, keep clear of, refrain, shuffle, shun, shy, steer clear of, Stow), kaçınmak (avoid, balk, baulk, beg, beware, chicken out, dodge, elude, eschew, evade, flee, flee from, flinch, forbear, funk, get out of, keep clear of, refrain, refuse, shirk, short circuit, shun, sidestep, spare, stand aloof, stand apart, stand aside, steer clear of, Stow), içkiden uzak durmak, çekimser olmak (abstain from voting). (various references)

Ukranian		стримуватися (contain, control oneself, hold in, keep one's temper, pull up, refrain), утримуватися (desist, forbear, forego, forgo, hold back, refrain from, restrain oneself, waive, withhold). (various references)

Welsh		ymwrthod (renounce), ymgadw (forbear, keep oneself), ymatal (forbear, refrain). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	abstinere. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Language	Date	Source	1 Thessalonians Chapter 5, Verse 22
Greek (transliterated)	250 BC	Septuagint	Apo pantoV eidouV ponhrou apecesqe
Latin	405	Vulgate	Ab omni specie mala abstinete vos
Old English	990	West Saxon	Onscuniað eal yfel.
Middle English	1395	Wyclif	Absteyne you fro al yuel spice.
Renaissance English	1526	Tyndale	Abstayne from all suspicious thinges.
Jacobean English	1611	King James	Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Victorian English	1833	Webster	Abstain from all appearance of evil.
Basic English	1964	Ogden	Keep from every form of evil.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Language	1 Thessalonians Chapter 5, Verse 22
Bulgarian	Благодат и мир да бъде на вас от Бога Отца и �"оспода Исуса Христа:
Cebuano	likayi ninyo ang tanang dagway sa kadautan.
Chinese	各樣的惡事要禁 �' 不作。
Croatian	svake se sjene zla klonite!
Danish	Holder eder fra det onde under alle Skikkelser!
Dutch	Onthoudt u van allen schijn des kwaads.
Finnish	karttakaa kaikenkaltaista pahaa.
French	abstenez-vous de toute espèce de mal.
German	Meidet allen bösen Schein.
Haitian Creole	Egzante tou sa ki mal.
Hungarian	Mindentõl, a mi gonosznak látszik, õrizkedjetek!
Indonesian-Bahasa Sehari-hari	Jauhilah segala macam kejahatan.
Indonesian-Terjemahan Lama	Jauhkanlah dirimu daripada segala jenis kejahatan.
Italian	Astenetevi da ogni specie di male.
Korean	악 은 모 �" 모 양 이 라 도 버 리 라 !
Latvian	Izvairieties pat no ïaunuma çnas!
Maori	Mawehe atu i nga ahua katoa o te kino.
Modern Greek	απο παντος ειδους κακου απεχεσθε.
Norwegian	avhold eder fra allslags ondt!
Portuguese	Abstende-vos de toda espécie de mal.
Rumanian	Feriyi-vq de orice se pare rqu.
Russian	х�"ЕТЦЙЧБКФЕУШ ПФ ЧУСЛПЗП ТП�"Б ЪМБ.
Shuar	Ashí yajauch ana nuyanka kanaktiarum.
Spanish	Apartaos de toda apariencia de mal.
Swahili	na epukeni kila aina ya uovu.
Swedish	avhållen eder från allt ont, av vad slag det vara må.
Thai	จงเว้นเสียจากสิ่งที่�"ูเหมือนชั่วทุกอย่าง
Ukrainian	Стережіться лихого в усякому вигляді!
Uma	Pelelii' hawe'ea kehi to dada'a.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "abstain": abstained, abstainer, abstainers, abstaining, abstains. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Abstain" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: abishai, abitibi, absat, abstein, abtain, ascain, astan, astrain, astrin, Baksteen, Bastan, bastiano, bastina, Cabestaing, nabataean, nabataen, namsrain, obstain. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "abstain" (pronounced ubstā"n or abstā"n)
4	-s t ā" n	stain, sustain.
3	-t ā" n	ascertain, attain, butane, contain, detain, entertain, maintain, obtain, pertain, retain.
4	-s t ā" n	stain, sustain.
3	-t ā" n	ascertain, attain, butane, contain, detain, entertain, maintain, obtain, pertain, retain.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "a-a-b-i-n-s-t"
	-1 letter: abatis.
	-2 letters: antas, antis, baits, basin, bints, nabis, sabin, saint, satin, stain, tains.
	-3 letters: abas, ains, aits, anas, anis, ansa, anta, anti, ants, baas, bait, bani, bans, bast, bats, bias, bins, bint, bits, isba, nabs, nibs, nits, sain, sati, snib, snit, stab, tabs, tain, tans, tins.
	-4 letters: aas, aba, abs, ain, ais, ait, ana, ani, ant, baa, ban, bas, bat, bin, bis, bit, ins, its, nab, nib, nit, sab, sat, sib, sin, sit, tab, tan, tas, tin, tis.
	-5 letters: aa, ab, ai, an, as, at, ba, bi, in, is, it, na, si, ta, ti.
	Words containing the letters "a-a-b-i-n-s-t"
	+1 letter: abstains, antibias, bartisan, habitans, tabanids.
	+2 letters: ablations, abstained, abstainer, bangtails, bartisans, bartizans, bastinade, bastinado, boatswain, botanicas, brantails, habitants, stainable, waistband.
	+3 letters: abominates, abstainers, abstaining, anabaptism, antirabies, ballasting, banalities, bastinades, battalions, bipartisan, blatancies, boatswains, botanicals, fabricants, insatiable, insatiably, lambasting, rabbinates, sabotaging, trainbands, waistbands.
	+4 letters: abdications, aberrations, abjurations, abnegations, abominators, abreactions, abrogations, abstracting, abstraction, alabastrine, ambulations, anabaptisms, antibaryons, bacitracins, bastinadoed, bastinadoes, batrachians, beauticians, brainteaser, cohabitants, habitations, inflatables, inhabitants, interabangs, outbargains, sailboating, subnational, subrational, substantial, sustainable, tabulations, tarnishable, trabeations.
	+5 letters: abominations, abstractions, adumbrations, antibacklash, antiblackism, antiliberals, approbations, arbitraments, arbitrations, backstabbing, basification, bastardising, bastardizing, bastinadoing, bearbaitings, bicarbonates, blastulation, brachiations, brainteasers, breakfasting, broadcasting, calibrations, carbonations, debarkations, distrainable, elaborations, embarkations, fabrications, habitualness, habituations, labiodentals, lactalbumins, libertarians, masturbating, masturbation, rattlebrains, restrainable, sailboatings, sanctionable, sandblasting, scatterbrain, stainability, starboarding, subantarctic, substantials, substantiate, substantival, talebearings, thingamabobs, trainbearers, unmistakable, unmistakably, urbanisation.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.