Sample sentences for ABSTAIN - verbalworkout.com

2 meanings

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1 —as in:
12 votes yes and 3 abstained

Definition

to formally not vote either "yes" or "no" (so that other voters will make the decision)

abstained = formally did not vote either "yes" or "no" (so that other voters made the decision)

Other Uses (with this meaning)

"All in favor?"
To my surprise, a lot of hands went up. Dionysus abstained.
Rick Riordan -- The Titan's Curse

abstained = did not vote

abstain = formally not vote either "yes" or "no" (so that other voters will make the decision)

2 —as in:
abstained from alcohol

Definition

choose not to do something

abstain = keep away (choose not to do something)

Other Uses (with this meaning)

He promised to abstain from smoking, chewing, and profanity as long as he remained a member.
Twain, Mark -- Tom Sawyer
Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact.
George Eliot
Satisfied that the cause was now on a footing the most proper and hopeful, Sir Thomas resolved to abstain from all farther importunity with his niece, and to shew no open interference.
Jane Austen -- Mansfield Park

abstain = choose not to do something

I believe that every man who has ever been earnest to preserve his higher or poetic faculties in the best condition has been particularly inclined to abstain from animal food, and from much food of any kind....
Jon Krakauer -- Into the Wild

abstain = not eat

He was a total abstainer and a nonsmoker, had no recreations except a daily hour in the gymnasium, and had taken a vow of celibacy, believing marriage and the care of a family to be incompatible with a twenty-four-hour-a-day devotion to duty.
George Orwell -- 1984

abstainer = non-drinker (of alcohol)

I had been accustomed, during the night, to steal a part of their store for my own consumption, but when I found that in doing this I inflicted pain on the cottagers, I abstained and satisfied myself with berries, nuts, and roots which I gathered from a neighbouring wood.
Mary Shelley -- Frankenstein

abstained = chose not to do that

abstain = choose to refrain (not engage in)

John had recommended that she abstain from such foods as root and leafy vegetables, and that she perform some active physical labor.
Laura Esquivel -- Like Water for Chocolate

abstain = not eat

Better to abstain from the gardens of delectable delights than to be stuck planting them, dawn to dusk.
Julia Alvarez -- In the Time of the Butterflies

abstain = keep away

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