Abnegate vs Abstain - What's the difference?
abnegate | abstain |
To deny (oneself something); to renounce or give up (a right, a power, a claim, a privilege, a convenience).
* 1898 December 10, Asbell v. State'', reported in ''The Pacific Reporter , volume 55, page 339:
* 1875 January, Brownson's Quarterly Review , page 20:
To relinquish; to surrender; to abjure.
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(transitive, reflexive, obsolete) Keep or withhold oneself.
Refrain from (something); hold one's self aloof; to forbear or keep from doing, especially an indulgence of the passions or appetites.
* Who abstains from meat that is not gaunt? - Shakespeare, Richard II, II-i
(obsolete) Fast.
Deliberately refrain from casting one's vote at a meeting where one is present.
* Not a few abstained from voting. -
(obsolete) Hinder; keep back; withhold.
* Whether he abstain men from marying [sic]. -
As verbs the difference between abnegate and abstain
is that abnegate is to deny (oneself something); to renounce or give up (a right, a power, a claim, a privilege, a convenience) while abstain is keep or withhold oneself.abnegate
English
Verb
(abnegat)- To compel a state, upon theories of doubtful statutory interpretation, to appear as defendant suitor in its own courts, and to litigate with private parties as to whether it had abnegated its sovereignty of exemption, would be intolerable.
- All ancient and modern histories of nations abnegate God.
