abandonment

Noun

abandonment (countable and uncountable, plural abandonments)

1. The act of abandoning, or the state of being abandoned; total desertion; relinquishment.
   • To what are we reserved? An adequate compensation "for the sacrifice of powers the most nearly connected with us;"— an adequate compensation "for the direct or indirect annexation to France ot all the ports of the continent, from Dunkirk to Hamburgh;"— an adequate compensation "for the abandonment...1790-1800, Edmund Burke, Letters on a Regicide Peace
   • The fate of the railway from Ballater to Braemar has been invested with an air of mystery, which has never been completely dispelled. It has been suggested that Queen Victoria was opposed to a railway in the vicinity of Balmoral Castle, and intervened personally to secure the abandonment of the...1957 January, H. A. Vallance, “The Deeside Railway—1”, in Railway Magazine, page 6
2. The voluntary leaving of a person to whom one is bound by a special relation, as a wife, husband or child; desertion.
   • Since he left her, she's suing him for divorce on grounds of abandonment.
3. An abandoned building or structure.
   • High-profile abandonments are harder to infiltrate for urban explorers due to their heightened security.
4. The relinquishment of a right, claim, or privilege; relinquishment of right to secure a patent by an inventor; relinquishment of copyright by an author.
5. The relinquishment by the insured to the underwriters of what may remain of the property insured after a loss or damage by a peril insured against.
6. The cessation of service on a particular segment of the lines of a common carrier, as granted by a government agency.
   • The railway was in fact shifted in 1937 a little to the west, over a distance of a quarter-mile, to make room for the by-pass at this point, but complete abandonment was firmly vetoed because of the proved strategic value of the line.1955 March, T. B. Sands, “The Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 191
7. A refusal to receive freight so damaged in transit as to be worthless and render carrier liable for its value.
8. The self-surrender to an outside influence.
   • For quotations using this term, see Citations:abandonment.
9. Abandon; careless freedom or ease; surrender to one's emotions.
   • Roger, in terms of the strengths he brought to the band, was wild abandonment. So if Howard was in the pocket, Roger was bouncing off the walls, and Nancy was somewhere in the middle.2008, Jake Brown, Heart: In the Studio