Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Extremely contemptible or degrading: synonym: base.
  • adjective Being of the most miserable kind; wretched.
  • adjective Thoroughgoing; complete. Used to modify pejorative nouns.
  • adjective Extremely submissive or self-abasing.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To throw away; cast off or out.
  • To make abject; humiliate; degrade.
  • Cast aside; cast away; abjected.
  • Low in condition or in estimation; utterly humiliating or disheartening; so low as to be hopeless: as, abject poverty, disgrace, or servitude.
  • Low in kind or character; mean; despicable; servile; groveling.
  • Synonyms Abject, Low, Mean, Groveling, debased, despicable, degraded, degenerate, wretched, menial, worthless, beggarly. (See list under low.) Abject, low, and mean may have essentially the same meaning, but low is more often used with respect to nature, condition, or rank; mean, to character or conduct; abject, to spirit. Groveling has the vividness of figurative use; it represents natural disposition toward what is low and base. Low is generally stronger than mean, conformably to the original senses of the two words.
  • noun A person who is abjectly base, servile, or dependent; a caitiff or menial.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb obsolete To cast off or down; hence, to abase; to degrade; to lower; to debase.
  • adjective obsolete Cast down; low-lying.
  • adjective Degraded; servile; groveling; despicable.
  • adjective Sunk to a low condition; down in spirit or hope; miserable; -- of persons.
  • adjective Humiliating; degrading; wretched; -- of situations.
  • noun obsolete A person in the lowest and most despicable condition; a castaway.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective showing humiliation or submissiveness
  • adjective most unfortunate or miserable
  • adjective of the most contemptible kind
  • adjective showing utter resignation or hopelessness

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, outcast, from Latin abiectus, past participle of abicere, to cast away : ab-, from; see ab– + iacere, to throw; see yē- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English abjecten, derived from the adjective form.

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