BOOKS OF REFERENCE Crabb's "English Synonymes Explained." [H.] Whateley's "English Synonyms Discriminated." [L. & S.] Fallows' "Complete Dictionary of Synonyms and Antonyms." [F. H. R.] Roget's "Thesaurus of English Words." [F. & W. Co.] Trench's "Study of English Words." [W. J. W.] Richard Grant White, "Words and their Uses," and "Every Day English." [H. M. & Co.] Geo. P. Marsh, "Lectures on the English Language," and "Origin and History of the English Language." [S.] Fitzedward Hall, "False Philology." [S.] Maetzner's "English Grammar," tr. by Grece. [J. M.] The Synonyms of the Century and International Dictionaries have also been consulted and compared. The Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary has been used as the authority throughout. Abandon is a word of wide signification, applying to persons or things of any kind; abdicate and resign apply to office, authority, or power; cede to territorial possessions; surrender especially to military force, and more generally to any demand, claim, passion, etc. Quit carries an idea of suddenness or abruptness not necessarily implied in abandon, and may not have the same suggestion of finality. The king abdicates his throne, cedes his territory, deserts his followers, renounces his religion, relinquishes his titles, abandons his designs. A cowardly officer deserts his ship; the helpless passengers abandon it. We quit business, give up property, resign office, abandon a habit or a trust. Relinquish commonly implies reluctance; the fainting hand relinquishes its grasp; the creditor relinquishes his claim. Abandon implies previous association with responsibility for or control of; forsake implies previous association with inclination or attachment, real or assumed; a man may abandon or forsake house or friends; he abandons an enterprise; forsakes God. Abandon is applied to both good and evil action; a thief abandons his designs; a man, his principles. Forsake, like abandon, may be used either in the favorable, or unfavorable sense; desert is always unfavorable, abash involving a breach of duty, except when used of mere localities; as, "The Deserted Village." While a monarch abdicates, a president or other elected or appointed officer resigns. It was held that James II. abdicated his throne by deserting it. Abase refers only to outward conditions. "Exalt him that is low, and abase him that is high." Ezek. xxi, 26. Debase applies to quality or character. The coinage is debased by excess of alloy; the man, by vice. Humble in present use refers chiefly to feeling of heart; humiliate to outward conditions; even when one is said to humble himself, he either has or affects to have humility of heart. To disgrace may be to bring or inflict odium upon others, but the word is chiefly and increasingly applied to such moral odium as one by his own acts brings upon himself; the noun disgrace retains more of the passive sense than the verb; he disgraced himself by his conduct; he brought disgrace upon his family. To dishonor a person is to deprive him of honor that should or might be given. To discredit one is to injure his reputation, as for veracity or solvency. A sense of unworthiness humbles; a shameful insult humiliates; imprisonment for crime disgraces. Degrade may refer to either station or character. An officer is degraded by being reduced to the ranks, disgraced by cowardice; vile practises degrade; drunkenness is a degrading vice. Misfortune or injustice may abase the good; nothing but their own ill-doing can debase or disgrace them. ANTONYMS: advance aggrandize dignify elevate honor raise uplift |