abstinence. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition. 2000.

abstinence

SYLLABICATION:	ab·sti·nence
PRONUNCIATION:	bst-nns
NOUN:	1. The act or practice of refraining from indulging an appetite, as for food. 2. Abstention from alcoholic beverages.
ETYMOLOGY:	Middle English, from Old French abstenance, from Latin abstinentia, from abstinns, abstinent-, present participle of abstinre, to hold back. See abstain.
OTHER FORMS:	absti·nent —ADJECTIVE absti·nent·ly —ADVERB
SYNONYMS:	abstinence, self-denial, temperance, sobriety, continence These nouns refer to restraint of one's appetites or desires. Abstinence implies the willful avoidance of pleasures, especially of food and drink, thought to be harmful or self-indulgent: “I vainly reminded him of his protracted abstinence from food” (Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights 1847.) Self-denial suggests resisting one's own desires for the achievement of a higher goal: I practiced self-denial to provide for my family's needs. Temperance refers to moderation and self-restraint and sobriety to gravity in bearing, manner, or treatment; both nouns denote moderation in or abstinence from the consumption of alcoholic liquor: Teetotalers preach temperance for everyone. “those moments which would come between the subsidence of actual sobriety and the commencement of intoxication” (Anthony Trollope, Ayala's Angel 1881.) Continence specifically refers to abstention from sexual activity: The nun took a vow of continence.


The American Heritage^® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by the Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.