Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To release (repressed emotions) by acting out, as in words, behavior, or the imagination, the situation causing the conflict.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb discharge bad feelings or tension through verbalization
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Translation of German abreagieren : ab-, away + reagieren, to react.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
From German abreagieren, from ab ("away from, off, down from") + reagieren ("to react")
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Examples
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What might our media look like, what might our social fabric look like and how might it react, abreact or respond to various stimuli, etcetera?
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Believing that Michael was understandably reactive to these severe familial stresses, his therapist recommended continued therapy so that he would have a place to ventilate, abreact, and share his feelings in a way that would not create the social consequences noted above at school.
Clinical Work with Adolescents Judith Marks Mishne 1986
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You can use cheap rappelz rupees to but things for abreact.
plumpesdenken commented on the word abreact
And in “Headbirths,�? which I wrote about in Saturday Review in 1982, Grass was still taking himself to task: “It was a mistake to imagine that ‘Cat and Mouse’ would abreact my schoolboy sorrows.�? Guilt, and more guilt — and more atonement. Boy, does this guy beat up on himself! I thought. Irving on Grass NYT
July 7, 2007