v. [f. L. abnegāt- ppl. stem of abnegā-re to refuse, to deny, f. ab off, away + negā-re to deny.]
1. To deny oneself (anything), to renounce or surrender (a right or privilege).
1657. Deuine Louer, 12. The which will of ours I meane is lesse abnegated or mortified in or by matter of abstaynings or restreignings then in or by those of suffering.
1846. Grote, Greece, II. II. vi. 534. Voluntarily abnegating their temporal advantages.
1861. Mill, Utilit., ii. 23. All honour to those who can abnegate for themselves the personal enjoyment of life.
1870. Pall Mall G., 7 Sept., 1. To do so would be to abnegate the one claim they have on the popular allegiance.
2. To renounce or abjure, as a tenet; ‘to deny,’ J. (The only meaning given by him.)
1755. Johnson, Dict., Abjure: to retract, recant, or abnegate a position upon oath.
1789. De Lolme, Obs. Late National Embarrassment, 23. They [the present Parliament] have abnegated the idea of independent rights of the People, and of independent rights of their own.
1858. Carlyle, Heroes, 312 (1858). The very possibility of Heroism had been, as it were, formally abnegated in the minds of all.
1875. Farrar, Silence & Voices, iii. 52. Man when he abnegates his God is a creature so petty, so foolish.
