Forms: 1–3 abád, 3–5 abod, 4–7 abood, 5 aboode, 6 aboade, 6–7 aboad, 5– abode. Northern 3–6 abade, 5–7 abaid(e. [vbl. sb. of ABIDE, with same stem-vowel as the pa. t.; cf. ride, rode, road.]
† 1. The action of waiting; delay. esp. in phrase without abode, without delay, immediately. Obs.
a. 1225. Juliana (Bodl. MS.), 73. A! stalewurðe men doð hire biliue to-deað buten abade.
c. 1314. Guy Warw., 46. Thurch the bodi his swerd glod Ded he fel withouten abod.
1375. Barbour, Bruce, I. 142. He buskyt hym, but mar abad.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 107. And right anoon, withoute eny abood His baner he desplayeth.
c. 1430. Lydgate, Bochas (1554), I. xv. 31. Whateuer he sayd, as longeth to Echo, Without abode, she says the same also.
1485. Trevisa, Higden (1527), I. xxxviii. 406. And made no more abood But ran anone into the wood.
c. 1500. Lancelot of the Laik (1865), 3259. Kyng clamedyus makith non abaid.
1577. Holinshed, Chron., III. 918/1. Without anie abode he entered the barge.
1596. Shaks., Merch. Ven., II. vi. 21. Sweete friends, your patience for my long abode, Not I, but my affairs haue made you wait.
† 2. A temporary remaining; a stay. Obs.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 942. Of restes, of labour, of viages, Of abood, of deeth, of lyfe.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon. (1714), 49. Their long or schorte Abode.
1599. Hakluyt, Voyages, II. I. 143. In any of their abodes or passages by sea or land.
1607. Hieron, Wks., I. 452. Wee are wont to describe a short abood by lodging in an inne.
1651. Hobbes, Leviathan, III. xli. 263. There are two parts of our Saviour’s Office during his aboad upon the Earth.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, VI. ix. 76 (1840). He waxeth wroth at your abode here.
† 3. Used by Puttenham for the rhetorical practice of ‘dwelling upon a point.’ Obs.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, 240 (1869). The perswader … should dwell vpon that point longer then vpon any other, and as it were to make his chief aboad thereupon, for which cause I name him the figure of aboad, according to the Latine name.
4. Habitual residence, dwelling.
1576. Lambarde, Peramb. Kent, 201 (1826). During his aboade in Kent, he had so incroched upon the lands.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., V. iv. 88. The Country where you make abode.
1611. Bible, John xiv. 23. We will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
1718. Pope, Iliad, V. 101. The brave Dolopian’s mighty line, Who near adored Scamander made abode.
1860. R. A. Vaughan, Ho. w. Mystics (ed. 2), I. 206. To dwell on the union of Christians with Christ; on His abode in us, and our abiding in Him.
5. An abiding-place, a dwelling-place, place of ordinary habitation; house or home.
1614. Raleigh, Hist. World, II. 499. Her aboad was about the River Liris.
1633. G. Herbert, Temple, 167, Ps. xxiii. 4. In deaths shadie black abode Well may I walk.
1667. Milton, P. L., III. 734. That spot to which I point is Paradise, Adam’s abode.
1767. Fordyce, Serm. to Yng. Wom., II. xii. 207. Visits to the abodes of misfortune and pain.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 320. He troubled himself little about decorating his abode.
