- an act or instance of leaving a person or thing permanently and completely:He struggles to deal with his abandonment by his wife, and now having to care for their infant alone.
- an act or instance of permanently setting aside a principle, discontinuing an activity, etc.:I believe in the struggle for radical social change, but it must be accompanied by an abandonment of the notion that the end justifies the means.
- an act or instance of giving up control of something, or of yielding to one’s impulses or to an external or spiritual force:No psychiatric diagnosis quite captures Hitler’s boundless will to lead, his self-deception, and his utter abandonment to evil.
