Abstinence
['æbstɪnəns]
Definition
(noun.) act or practice of refraining from indulging an appetite.
(noun.) the trait of abstaining (especially from alcohol).
Checked by Jessie--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) The act or practice of abstaining; voluntary forbearance of any action, especially the refraining from an indulgence of appetite, or from customary gratifications of animal or sensual propensities. Specifically, the practice of abstaining from intoxicating beverages, -- called also total abstinence.
(n.) The practice of self-denial by depriving one's self of certain kinds of food or drink, especially of meat.
Checked by Hugo
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Abstaining, refraining.[2]. Abstemiousness, soberness, temperance, moderation.
Checker: Rosalind
Unserious Contents or Definition
From the Persian ab, water, and stein, or tankard. Hence, water-tankard, or 'water wagon.'
Inputed by Fidel
Examples
- Why such unnatural abstinence? Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- I give you leave, returned Laurie, who enjoyed having someone to tease, after his long abstinence from his favorite pastime. Louisa May Alcott. Little Women.
- They each had the yellow fever fourteen times, and then resolved to try a little abstinence; since which period, they have been doing well. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- This sentiment of morality, in the performance of promises, arises from the same principles as that in the abstinence from the property of others. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Then hearing of my fatigue and abstinence, she herself brought me food. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- To Dorothea this was adorable genuineness, and religious abstinence from that artificiality which uses up the soul in the efforts of pretence. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
Typist: Penelope