abstain

Verb

abstain (third-person singular simple present abstains, present participle abstaining, simple past and past participle abstained)

1. (obsolete, reflexive, transitive) Keep or withhold oneself.
2. (intransitive) Refrain from (something or doing something); keep from doing, especially an indulgence.
   • In order to improve his health, Rob decided to abstain from smoking.
   • Who abstains from meat that is not gaunt?1597, Shakespeare, Richard II, II-i
   1. (intransitive) To refrain from drinking alcohol.
      • … she had made Bunting abstain very early in their acquaintance. … Glad she was now that he had taken the pledge as a younger man; but for that nothing would have kept him from the drink during the bad times they had gone through.1913, Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes, The Lodger
3. (intransitive, obsolete) Fast (not eat for a period).
4. (intransitive) Deliberately refrain from casting one's vote at a meeting where one is present.
   • I abstain from this vote, as I have no particular preference.
   • […]forcing a small portion of the population to abstain from voting1913, Thomas Babington Macaulay, A Short History of English Liberalism
5. (obsolete, transitive) Hinder; keep back; withhold.
   • Whether he abstain men from marying [sic].1645, John Milton, Tetrachordon: Expositions on the four chief places in Scripture