Forms: 4–5 abstene, 4–6 absteyn(e, -ein(e, 6 asteine, 6–7 abstayne, abstaine, 7– abstain. [a. Fr. absteni-r, a 14th-c. refashioning of OFr. asteni-r (whence occ. Eng. asteine):—L. abstinē-re to withhold, f. abs = ab off, away from + tenē-re to hold. The Fr. (like the Eng. originally) is only reflexive, s’abstenir, L. se abstinēre to keep oneself from, refrain from.]
† 1. refl. To keep or withhold oneself. Const. of, from. Obs.
c. 1380. Sir Ferumbras, 3761. In herte hur gan to greue. of wepyng ne miȝt sche abstene hur noȝt.
1382. Wyclif, 1 Cor. ix. 25. Ech man that stryueth in fyȝt, absteyneth him fro alle thingis.
1483. Caxton, G. de la Tour, ij. b. To kepe trewly her maryage and also absteyne her of synne.
c. 1500. Lancelot of the Laik, 1261. My consell is, therfore, you to absten.
1535. Coverdale, Acts xv. 20. Wryte vnto them that they absteyne them selues from fylthynesse of Idols.
2. intr. (by gradual suppression of the pron. object.) To keep or withhold oneself, to refrain. Const. from (of obs.)
1382. Wyclif, Num. vi. 3. Fro al that may make dronkun, thei shulen absteyne.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., I. xiv. 78. Y must here therof abstene and forber.
1538. Starkey, England, 17. To absteyn from flesch apon the Fryday … ys now reputyd a certayn vertue.
1598. Barret, Theor. of War., V. v. 165. To absteine from committing these excesses.
1667. Milton, P. L., IV. 748. Our Maker bids increase; who bids abstain But our destroyer, foe to God and man?
1746. Col. Records Penn., V. 50. That they do abstain from all servile Labour on that Day.
1798. Ferriar, Illustr. of Sterne, ii. 38. D’Aubigné was so fond of writing epigrams, that he could not abstain from them.
1860. Tyndall, Glaciers, I. § 3. 26. I therefore abstained from mentioning it subsequently.
3. esp. (being used most frequently in reference to eating and drinking). To refrain from food, to fast (obs.); to refrain from the use of alcoholic beverages, to be a ‘total-abstainer.’
1534. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. of M. Aurel. (1546), D. iij. If he be temperate and moderate, all wil absteyne.
1547. Boorde, Brev. of Health, i. 7. Many men wolde eate meate if they had it, and therfor nolens volens, they do asteine.
1867. B. Nicols, in Cleric. Testy. to Tot. Abs., 98. Several have told me … that while they had abstained, some for weeks or months, they were far better in every respect than while they drank.
† 4. trans. (later and rare, and probably a literary imitation of the trans. use of L. abstinere). To keep back, keep off.
1509. Barclay, Shyp of Folys (1874), II. 275. From outwarde thynges his mynde doth he abstayne.
1534. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), H ij b. For a small season the louer maie absteyne his loue.
1645. Milton, Tetrach. (1851), 154. For what difference at all whether he abstain men from marying, or restraine them in a mariage hapning totally discommodious.
1644–58. J. Cleveland, Gen. Poems (1677), 140. My Lord doth justly abstain his hand from his Dispatch.
