(abandons, abandoning, abandoned)
Frequency: The word is one of the 3000 most common words in English.
1.
If you abandon a place, thing, or person, you leave the place, thing, or person permanently or for a long time, especially when you should not do so.
He claimed that his parents had abandoned him...
The road is strewn with abandoned vehicles.
VERB: V n, V-ed
2.
If you abandon an activity or piece of work, you stop doing it before it is finished.
The authorities have abandoned any attempt to distribute food...
= give up
? continue
VERB: V n
3.
If you abandon an idea or way of thinking, you stop having that idea or thinking in that way.
Logic had prevailed and he had abandoned the idea.
= give up
VERB: V n
4.
If you say that someone does something with abandon, you mean that they behave in a wild, uncontrolled way and do not think or care about how they should behave.
He has spent money with gay abandon...
N-UNCOUNT: usu with N [disapproval]
5.
6.
If people abandon ship, they get off a ship because it is sinking.
PHRASE: v inflects