as in refusal
the act or practice of giving up or rejecting something once enjoyed or desired
the couple's sudden abnegation of life in the fast lane for work as missionaries stunned everyone
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Recent Examples of abnegation
Is that an abnegation of interviewer responsibility?
—
David Marchese David Marchese Photograph By Mamadi Doumbouya, New York Times, 8 Oct. 2023
The life that Alharthi describes is one of almost saintly self-abnegation.
—Ron Charles, Washington Post, 24 May 2022
His naïve insolence punctures the vanities of other filmmakers while offering no alternative, and the movie that results is a joyless, confused self-abnegation.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 11 Apr. 2022
The explicit and quasi-religious abnegation of the right to violent self-defense put the national committee at odds with one of its key allies during the Saturday march: Black Lives Matter.
—Samantha Eyler, Foreign Affairs, 31 Jan. 2017
See All Example Sentences for abnegation
David Marchese David Marchese Photograph By Mamadi Doumbouya, New York Times, 8 Oct. 2023
The life that Alharthi describes is one of almost saintly self-abnegation.
—Ron Charles, Washington Post, 24 May 2022
His naïve insolence punctures the vanities of other filmmakers while offering no alternative, and the movie that results is a joyless, confused self-abnegation.
—Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 11 Apr. 2022
The explicit and quasi-religious abnegation of the right to violent self-defense put the national committee at odds with one of its key allies during the Saturday march: Black Lives Matter.
—Samantha Eyler, Foreign Affairs, 31 Jan. 2017
See All Example Sentences for abnegation
Recent Examples of Synonyms for abnegation
Noun
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Woods was arrested and charged with DUI, property damage and refusal to submit to a lawful test, Budensiek said.—
Melissa Gaffney,
CBS News,
28 Mar. 2026
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No, the lines at Logan so far have not been bad, or not nearly as bad as airports elsewhere, which are all due to the stubborn Democrat refusal to fund the Department of Homeland Security.—
Peter Lucas,
Boston Herald,
28 Mar. 2026
Noun
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The department said the new $450 fee remains well below the government’s actual cost of processing renunciation requests.—
Michael Dorgan,
FOXNews.com,
14 Mar. 2026
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British psychiatrist Humphry Osmond, who took part in a peyote ceremony with a First Nations group the Red Pheasant Band in Saskatchewan, Canada, in 1956, intuited the necessity of community, empathy, and ego renunciation during the psychedelic process.—
Erica Rex,
STAT,
19 Feb. 2026
Noun
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The #ChurchToo and #SilenceIsNotSpiritual movements, along with scandals at Willow Creek and the International House of Prayer, reveal a pervasive pattern of abuse and denial.—
Ed Gaskin,
Boston Herald,
29 Mar. 2026
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Her covert affair with Davis became big news when a Chicago gossip columnist wrote a detailed account of their relationship in early 1958, including their plans to wed, despite their denials.—
Glenn Garner,
Deadline,
28 Mar. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Abnegation.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/abnegation. Accessed 1 Apr. 2026.
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