- verb
-
- keep oneself from doing or enjoying sth, esp from taking alcoholic drinks; refrain [Barron]
- to refrain deliberately and often with an effort of self-denial from an action or practice [Taisha]
- refrain; withhold from participation; intentionally not use one's vote [Nandigam]
More word meanings for abstain
from leading online dictionaries:
- Wiktionary:
- abstain @ wiktionary
- WordNet:
- abstain @ wordnet.princeton.edu
- Merriam-Webster Online:
- abstain @ M-W.com
- MSN Encarta:
- abstain @ Encarta
- American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language:
- abstain @ AHD provided by Yahoo! Education
- Answers.com:
- abstain @ Answers.com
- Search for more definitions on Google:
- Google define:abstain
- Search for more definitions on Yahoo!:
- Yahoo! define:abstain
- Search for more definitions on Ask.com:
- Ask.com dictionary: abstain