Verb

(en verb)

(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]. -

Verb

(acquir)

To get.

To gain, usually by one's own exertions; to get as one's own, as, to acquire a title, riches, knowledge, skill, good or bad habits.

* (Isaac Barrow) (1630-1677)

No virtue is acquired in an instant, but step by step.

* (William Blackstone) (1723-1780)

Descent is the title whereby a man, on the death of his ancestor, acquires his estate, by right of representation, as his heir at law.

*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), chapter=3/19/2, title= “Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days

, passage=Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house?; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something?; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.}}