abject
Existing in or sunk to a low condition, position, or state; contemptible, despicable, miserable.
Adjective
- Existing in or sunk to a low condition, position, or state; contemptible, despicable, miserable.
- These whelpes of the first lytter of gentilitie, these exhalations, drawen vp to the heauen of honour from the dunghill of abiect fortune, haue long been on horsebacke to come riding to your diuellship; but, I know not...
- VVhen as thoſe fallovv Deere, and huge-hancht Stags that graz'd / Vpon her ſhaggy Heaths, the paſſenger amaz'd / To ſee their mighty Heards, vvith high-palmd heads to threat / The vvoods of o'regrovvne Oakes; as though...
- [W]ith fierce Winds Orion arm'd / Hath vext the Red-Sea Coaſt, whoſe waves orethrew / Buſiris and his Memphian Chivalrie, / While with perfidious hatred they purſu'd / The Sojourners of Goſhen, who beheld / From the...
Synonyms: degraded demiss ignoble mean vile wretched worthless
Antonyms: unabject
- Complete; downright; utter.
- abject failure abject nonsense abject terror
- Lord Howard of Escrick accused [John] Ayloffe of proposing to assassinate the Duke of York; but Lord Howard was an abject liar; and this story was not part of his original confession, but was added afterwards by way of...
- I flung myself before him on my knees, and with floods of tears besought him to release me from this engagement, assuring him that my cowardice was abject, and that in every point of intellect and character I was his...
Synonyms: out-and-out unmitigated abject frightful absolute arrant categoric categorical complete consummate decided downright full full-blown full-bore full-on mere outright perfect precious proper pure stark rank
- Lower than nearby areas; low-lying.
- The Roots of this Plant [healing wolfsbane (Aconitum anthora)] increaſe abundantly, ſoon overrunning a large Piece of Ground, therefore ſhould be confin'd in ſome abject Part of the Garden, or planted under Trees, it...
- Of a person: cast down in hope or spirit; showing utter helplessness, hopelessness, or resignation; also, grovelling; ingratiating; servile.
- Oh Noble Lord, bethinke thee of thy birth, / Call home thy ancient thoughts from baniſhment, / And baniſh hence theſe abiect lovvlie dreames: […] - c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the...
- O that I vvere a God, to ſhoot forth Thunder / Vpon theſe paltry, ſeruile, abiect Drudges: / Small things make baſe men proud. - c. 1596–1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth,...
- [T]hoſe common and quotidian infirmities that ſo neceſſarily attend me, and doe ſeeme to be my very nature, have ſo dejected me, ſo broken the eſtimation that I ſhould have othervviſe of my ſelf, that I repute my ſelfe...
Synonyms: beggarly cringing slavish
Antonyms: unabject
- Marginalized as deviant.
- The abject can easily be grafted onto the immigrant body, which is often conceived as something to be excluded in order to preserve a coherent yet racist national imaginary. - 2007, Sean Brayton, “MTV's Jackass:...
- The disclosure of tolerance's hidden phobic lining fits in well with queer theory's embrace of the abject. - 2009, W. C. Harris, Queer Externalities: Hazardous Encounters in American Culture, SUNY Press, →ISBN, page 98:
Origin
PIE word *h₂epó The adjective is derived from Late Middle English abiect, abject (adjective) [and other forms], from Middle French abject (modern French abject, abjet (obsolete)), and from its etymon Latin abiectus (“abandoned; cast aside”), an adjective use of the perfect passive participle of abiciō (“to discard, throw away”), from ab- (prefix meaning ‘away from’) + iaciō (“to throw”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(H)yeh₁- (“to throw”)). The noun is derived from the adjective. Cognates * Italian abiecto (obsolete), abietto * Late Latin abiectus (“humble or poor person”, noun) * Spanish abjecto (obsolete), abyecto
Forms
Related
Derived
abjectification abjectify abjectly abjectness nonabject unabject
Noun
- A person in the lowest and most despicable condition; an oppressed person; an outcast; also, such people as a class.
- Nevertheleſſe he thatt comfortith the abiecte⸝ comforted vs at the cõmynge of Titus. - 1526, [William Tyndale, transl.], The Newe Testamẽt […] (Tyndale Bible), [Worms, Germany: Peter Schöffer], →OCLC, The Seconde Pistle...
- VVe are the Queenes abiects and muſt obey. - c. 1593 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. […] (First Quarto), London: […] Valentine Sims [and Peter Short] for Andrew Wise, […],...
- For honour trauels in a ſtraight ſo narrovv, / VVhere one but goes a breaſt, keepe then the path: / […] if you giue vvay, / Or hedge aſide from the direct forth right; / Like to an entred Tyde, they all ruſh by, / And...
Forms
Verb
- To cast off or out (someone or something); to reject, especially as contemptible or inferior.
- […] Dauid durſt not touch Saul, though he vvas abiected by God. - 1611, Iohn Speed [i.e., John Speed], “Elizabeth Queene of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, &c. […]”, in The History of Great Britaine...
- Rather than abjecting her own fat body, the Ipecac-taking fat girl is abjecting diet culture. - 2001, Le’a Kent, “Fighting Abjection: Representing Fat Women”, in Jana Evans Braziel, Kathleen LeBesco, editors, Bodies out...
- To cast down (someone or something); to abase; to debase; to degrade; to lower; also, to forcibly impose obedience or servitude upon (someone); to subjugate.
- What phrases of abjecting themselves, in respect of the prince, can exceed David's humble expressing of himself to Saul? - a. 1632 (date written), John Donne, “Sermon IX. Preached on Candlemas Day.”, in Henry Alford,...
- Of a fungus: to (forcibly) give off (spores or sporidia).
Origin
From Late Middle English abjecten (“to cast out, expel”) [and other forms], from abiect, abject (adjective) (see etymology 1). Sense 3 (“of a fungus: to give off (spores or sporidia)”) is modelled after German abschleudern (“to give off forcefully”).