To Aba'ndon. v.a. [Fr. abandonner. Derived, according to Menage, from the Italian abandonare, which signifies to forsake his colours; bandum [vexillum] deserere. Pasquier thinks it a coalition of a ban donner, to give up to a proscription; in which sense we, at this day, mention the ban of the empire. Ban, in our own old dialect, signifies a curse; and to abandon, if considered as compounded between French and Saxon, is exactly equivalent to diris devovere.]
- To give up, resign, or quit; often followed by the particle to.
The passive gods behold the Greeks defile
Their temples, and abandon to the spoil
Their own abodes; we, feeble few, conspire
To save a sinking town, involv'd in fire. Dryd. Aeneid. - To desert.
The princes using the passions of fearing evil, and desiring to escape, only to serve the rule of virtue, not to abandon one's self, leapt to a rib of the ship. Sidney, b. ii
Then being alone,
Left and abandon'd of his velvet friends,
'Tis right, quoth he; thus misery doth part
The flux of company. Shakesp. As you like it.What fate a wretched fugitive attends,
Scorn'd by my foes, abandon'd by my friends. Dryd. Aen. 2. - To forsake, generally with a tendency to an ill sense.
When he in presence came, to Guyon first
He boldly spake; Sir knight, if knight thou be,
Abandon this forestalled place at erst,
For fear of further harm, I counsel thee. Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. ii. cant. 4. stanz. 39.But to the parting goddess thus she pray'd;
Propitious still be present to my aid,
Nor quite abandon your once favour'd maid. Dryd. Fab.