[a. Fr. abolition, or ? ad. L. abolitiōn-em annulling, amnesty, n. of action from abolēre: see ABOLISH.]
1. The act of abolishing, or putting an end to; the fact of being abolished, or done away with; annulling, destruction or annihilation.
1529. More, Suppl. Soules, Wks. 1557, 311/2. They by the distruccion of the clergy, meane the clere abolycion of Christes faith.
1533. Elyot, Castel of Helth 55 (1541). It signifieth a short abolicion or dissolution of nature.
a. 1638. Mede, Par. 2 Pet. iii. Wks. 1672, III. 617. We look for a New heaven and a New earth to precede this abolition.
1651. Jer. Taylor, Serm. I. xxii. 286. Requiring onely contrition, even at the last for the abolition of eternal guilt.
1763. Ld. Barrington, in Ellis, Orig. Lett., II. 505, IV. 474. He recommended Union and Abolition of party Distinctions.
1792. Gov. Morris, Spark’s Life & Wr. (1832), III. 29. The abolition of the slave trade is disagreeable to them.
1862. H. Spencer, First Prin., I. v. § 29. (1875), 103. The abolition of an imaginable agency, and the substitution of an unimaginable one.
1875. Wood, Therap., 375 (1879). The paralysis or quietness must have been due to an abolition of sensation.
b. spec. The abolition of the slave-trade, which, in the end of the 18th and during the 19th centuries, both in the European colonies, and still more in the United States of America, became a great political question, so as to be spoken of familiarly as ‘abolition.’ Hence attrib. as the ‘Abolition movement,’ an ‘Abolition speech,’ etc.
1788. T. Clarkson (title), Essay on the comparative Efficiency of Regulation or Abolition as applied to the Slave-trade. Ibid. (1808), Hist. of the Abolition, II. ii. 118. The author travels to Paris to promote the abolition in France.
1863. W. Phillips, Speeches, vi. 132. Dr. Channing has thanked the Abolition party.
1863. Kemble, Resid. in Georgia, 57. Until the late abolition movement.
† 2. A putting out of memory; a final overlooking or condoning, an amnesty. Also (in Law) permission to condone an offence, or withdraw from its prosecution.
1606. Holland, Suetonius, 89. After that Cæsar was slaine … all men for feare of troubles and uprores decreed a finall abolition and oblivion of that fact.
1691. Blount, Law Dict., Abolition, A destroying or putting out of memory; the leave given by the King or Judges to a criminal accuser to desist from further prosecution.
1809. Tomlins, Law Dict., Abolition, a destroying or effacing or putting out of memory.
