Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Self-denial.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The act of abnegating; a renunciation.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun a denial; a renunciation.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun renunciation of your own interests in favor of the interests of others
- noun the denial and rejection of a doctrine or belief
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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And this isn't always the easiest thing because a great deal of self-discipline and even self-abnegation is called for.
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Even if this is done, it is clear that to introduce the child of another woman into the home is demanding a much greater self-abnegation from the wife than is demanded from the husband in the situation we have just considered.
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If, however, we include in the term morality the transitory display of certain qualities such as abnegation, self-sacrifice, disinterestedness, devotion, and the need of equity, we may say, on the contrary, that crowds may exhibit at times a very lofty morality.
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She has therefore an opportunity for exercising in behalf of her dog that beautiful self-abnegation which is said to be a part of woman's nature, impelling her always to prefer that her laurels should be worn by somebody else.
Women and the Alphabet A Series of Essays Thomas Wentworth Higginson 1867
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In these enthusiasts we shall find striking examples of one of the morbid forces of human nature; yet in candor let us do honor to what was genuine in them, -- that principle of self-abnegation which is the life of true religion, and which is vital no less to the highest forms of heroism.
The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century Francis Parkman 1858
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This may be called the abnegation theory, and its origin may be fairly explained by considering it as derived from the original gift theory. "
Archeological Expedition to Arizona in 1895 Seventeenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1895-1896, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1898, pages 519-744 Jesse Walter Fewkes 1890
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Denial (also called abnegation) is a defense mechanism postulated by Sigmund Freud, in which a person is faced with a fact that is too uncomfortable to accept and rejects it instead, insisting that it is not true despite what may be overwhelming evidence. "
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I believe that equality of rights would abate the exaggerated self-abnegation which is the present artificial ideal of feminine character, and that a good woman would not be more self-sacrificing than the best man: but on the other hand, men would be much more unselfish and self-sacrificing than at present, because they would no longer be taught to worship their own will as such a grand thing that it is actually the law for another rational being.
The Subjection of Women John Stuart Mill 1839
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-- Tell me, Heaven! where now is justice when the holiest gift, when genius and its immortality, come not as a reward for fervent love, for abnegation, prayer and dogged labor -- but light its radiance in the head of folly, of idle wantonness?
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It was the sublime abnegation of true love that comes to all lovers, and it came to him there, at the telephone, in a whirlwind of fire and glory; and to die for her, he felt, was to have lived and loved well.
Chapter 12 2010
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