Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To cause to become unfriendly or hostile; estrange.
  • transitive verb To cause to become withdrawn or unresponsive; isolate or dissociate emotionally.
  • transitive verb To cause to be transferred; turn away.
  • transitive verb Law To transfer (property or a right) to the ownership of another, especially by an act of the owner rather than by inheritance.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To transfer or convey, as title, property, or other right, to another: as, to alienate lands or sovereignty.
  • To repel or turn away in feeling; make indifferent or averse, where love or esteem before subsisted; estrange: with from before the secondary object.
  • Synonyms To deliver over, surrender, give up.
  • To disaffect.

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

  • transitive verb To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.
  • transitive verb To withdraw, as the affections; to make indifferent of averse, where love or friendship before subsisted; to estrange; to wean; -- with from.
  • adjective Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; -- with from.
  • noun obsolete A stranger; an alien.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; with from.
  • noun obsolete A stranger; an alien.
  • verb To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.
  • verb To estrange; to withdraw affections or attention from; to make indifferent or averse, where love or friendship before subsisted; to wean.

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

  • verb transfer property or ownership
  • verb make withdrawn or isolated or emotionally dissociated
  • verb arouse hostility or indifference in where there had formerly been love, affection, or friendliness

Etymologies

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

[Latin aliēnāre, aliēnāt-, from Latin aliēnus, alien; see alien.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Latin aliēnātus, perfect passive participle of aliēnō ("alienate, estrange"), from aliēnus. See alien, and confer aliene.

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Examples

  • The disposition of the Howard estate had been a matter of particular concern to Henry VIII who considered the Howard estates too valuable to alienate from the crown. 15 Henry's intention had been to gift them to Prince Edward.

    From Heads of Household to Heads of State: The Preaccession Households of Mary and Elizabeth Tudor, 1516-1558 2008

  • So while the labels alienate and lose their artists who provide their product, they are also managing to alienate and lose the customers who buy it.

    Ron Galloway: A Tale of Two Moms & the Music Industry 2008

  • The one Hollywood consultant nobody in Democratic politics can afford to alienate is Andy Spahn.

    The Hollywood Campaign 2004

  • The one Hollywood consultant nobody in Democratic politics can afford to alienate is Andy Spahn.

    The Hollywood Campaign 2004

  • So far as the Board of Governors of the CBC is concerned, its present policy is not to alienate from the public domain any broadcasting rights in television to privately-owned stations or other profit-making concerns!

    Television—Progress and Promise 1949

  • If I hadn't stumbled on a link one day that led me to a snarky sarcastic blonde doing something that resemebled cable access on crack, I would never have made RB one of my daily fixes and BTY, I am one of those conservative viewers you told John Edwards you were trying to "alienate" - obviously it didn't work.

    For the Record Amanda 2006

  • For every voting block they alienate, that is one more block they are giving to the dems.

    Think Progress 2009

  • Hey, I'm all for cool action scenes in my SciFi, but -- if I may clarify the author's assumption -- stories that include inter-character relationships don't "alienate" me.

    Is Science Fiction Becoming 'Feminized'? 2009

  • In the real world of human societies, however, human beings give up or "alienate" some rights - in particular, the right to initiate physical force - in exchange for governmental protection.

    JLF > John Hood's Daily Journal 2010

  • In the real world of human societies, however, human beings give up or "alienate" some rights - in particular, the right to initiate physical force - in exchange for governmental protection.

    JLF > John Hood's Daily Journal 2010

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