Abject

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Table of contents

1 Etymology

2 Adjective

2.1 Synonyms

3 Transitive verb

4 Noun

Etymology

Latin abjectus, past participle of abjicere to throw away; ab + jacere to throw. See jet a shooting forth

Adjective

(Obsolete): Cast down; low-lying
Quotations
- From the safe shore their floating carcasses And broken chariot wheels; so thick bestrown Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood - Milton
Sunk to a low condition; down in spirit or hope; degraded; servile; groveling; despicable; as, abject posture, fortune, thoughts.
Quotations
- Base and abject flatterers - Addison
- An abject liar - Macaulay
- And banish hence these abject, lowly dreams - Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, I-ii
- He sat obediently with that tentative and abject eagerness of a man who has but one pleasure left and whom the world can reach only through one sense, for he was both blind and deaf - 1931 Faulkner, Sanctuary, ii

Synonyms

Mean; groveling; cringing; mean-spirited; slavish; ignoble; worthless; vile; beggarly; contemptible; degraded.

Transitive verb

(Obsolete): To cast off or down; hence, to abase; to degrade; to lower; to debase - Donne

Noun

(Obsolete): A person in the lowest and most despicable condition; a castaway
Quotations
- Shall these abjects, these victims, these outcasts, know any thing of pleasure? - I. Taylor

WordNet Definitions

four

1. abject, low, low-down, miserable, scummy, scurvy -- (of the most contemptible kind; "abject cowardice"; "a low stunt to pull"; "a low-down sneak"; "his miserable treatment of his family"; "You miserable skunk!"; "a scummy rabble"; "a scurvy trick").
2. abject -- (most unfortunate or miserable; "the most abject slaves joined in the revolt"; "abject poverty").
3. abject, resigned, unhopeful -- (showing utter resignation or hopelessness; "abject surrender").
4. abject -- (showing humiliation or submissiveness; "an abject apology").

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