All 3 Uses of
abstinence
in
The House of Mirth
- Why such unnatural abstinence?†
Chpt 1.6 *
- The result was apt to be an irreducible combination of persons having no other quality in common than their abstinence from bridge, and the antagonisms developed in a group lacking the one taste which might have amalgamated them, were in this case aggravated by bad weather, and by the ill-concealed boredom of their host and hostess.†
Chpt 1.12
- Though many of Selden's friends would have called his parents poor, he had grown up in an atmosphere where restricted means were felt only as a check on aimless profusion: where the few possessions were so good that their rarity gave them a merited relief, and abstinence was combined with elegance in a way exemplified by Mrs. Selden's knack of wearing her old velvet as if it were new.†
Chpt 1.14
Definition:
-
(abstinence) choosing not to do something -- typically refraining from something such as alcohol or sex for self-benefit