alienate
To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.
Adjective
- Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign
- O alienate from God. - 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias...
Origin
From Middle English alienat(e) (“deranged; uncertain; sequestred, secluded”), from Latin aliēnātus, perfect passive participle of aliēnō (“to estrange, alienate”) (see -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from aliēnus. By surface analysis, alien + -ate. See alien, and compare aliene.
Noun
- A stranger; an alien.
Origin
From a substantivation of the above adjective, see -ate (noun-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Cognate with French aliéner (“a crazed, mad man, lunatic”).
Forms
Verb
- To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.
- To estrange; to withdraw affections or attention from; to make indifferent or averse, where love or friendship before subsisted.
- The errors which […] alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart. - 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter I, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volume (please...
- The recollection of his former life is a dream that only the more alienates him from the realities of the present. - 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:
- The Communists had considerable influence in the Labour Party in the years 1920–26 and 1935–9. Their chief importance, and that of the whole left wing of the Labour movement, was the part they played in alienating the...
- To cause one to feel unable to relate.
Origin
Either from the above adjective or directly borrowed from Latin alienātus, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and Etymology 1 for more. Cognate with French aliéner.