Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In an abject, mean, or servile manner.

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

  • adverb Meanly; servilely.

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

  • adverb in a hopeless resigned manner

Etymologies

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Examples

  • One form of communication we have failed in abjectly: that is in the teaching of languages.

    What Has Happened to The American Dream? 1969

  • One form of communication we have failed in abjectly: that is in the teaching of languages.

    What Has Happened to The American Dream? 1961

  • He was to live, it appeared, abominably worried, he was to live consciously rueful, he was to live perhaps even what a scoffing world would call abjectly exposed; but at least he was to live saved.

    The Finer Grain Henry James 1879

  • Oh! (_He fetches up two coins abjectly from his pocket_).

    Punch, or the London Charivari, Vol. 104, April 1, 1893 Various 1876

  • Thus it was amazing to me how quickly, faced with the possible loss of the most important person in the world, I overcame my puritan principles and called abjectly for help.

    RutlandHerald.com 2008

  • Thus it was amazing to me how quickly, faced with the possible loss of the most important person in the world, I overcame my puritan principles and called abjectly for help.

    TimesArgus.com: Sports 2008

  • Beyond doubt, the boy had broken the taboos, and privily he told him so, until Lamai trembled and wept and squirmed abjectly at his feet, for the penalty was death.

    CHAPTER XIV 2010

  • Once before he had tried Spencer, and choosing the "Principles of Psychology" to begin with, he had failed as abjectly as he had failed with Madam Blavatsky.

    Chapter 13 2010

  • Just the first line of your last post was so utterly ludicrous and abjectly stupid I am ashamed to be the same species as someone as bone chillingly ignorant as you.

    Think Progress » CBS Allows Focus On The Family Advocacy Ad During Super Bowl, But Bans Gay Dating Site Ad 2010

  • I remember one man they dragged out of a heap, who pleaded abjectly until a revolver shot cut him short.

    Chapter 23: The People of the Abyss 2010

Comments

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  • "'Scuse me,' I said abjectly, putting my tray on the bar and meeting Terry's eyes briefly."-Dead as a Doornail, by Charlaine Harris

    May 19, 2011