Also 5–6 alyenacion, -cyon. [a. MFr. aliénacion, ad. L. aliēnātiōnem, n. of action f. alienā-re: see ALIEN v.]
1. The action of estranging, or state of estrangement in feeling or affection. Const. (of obs.) from.
1388. Wyclif, Job xxxi. 3. Alienacioun of God is to men worchynge wickidnesse.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., III. iii. I. i. Alexander … saw now an alienation in his subiects hearts.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, II. iii. 298. The alienation shew’d by the Pope from the French.
1770. Burke, Pres. Discont., Wks. II. 275. They grow every day into alienation from this country.
1862. Stanley, Jew. Ch. (1877), I. xvii. 323. The alienation of the people from the worship of the sanctuary.
1904. D. H. Moore, in Kentucky Post, 26 Aug., 2/6. So long as profits are solely the property of capital, alienation of labor is unavoidable.
2. The action of transferring the ownership of anything to another.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, V. xxxvi. Kinges in theyr bedde are slawe; Which bringeth in alyenacyon By extorte tytle false successyon.
1463. in Bury Wills (1850), 26. Wich obligacion must be maad at euery alyenacion in a notable summe.
1587. Harrison, England, I. II. ii. 48. Hereford … paid to Rome at everie alienation 1800 ducats at the least.
1661. Bramhall, Just Vind., iii. 39. Prohibiting … the alienation of Lands to the Church.
1699. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), IV. 580. Mr. Charles Boyl … succeeds … as receiver of the alienation office.
1788. Priestley, Lect. Hist., V. lii. 405. Price, however, supposes alienation; and a common standard of value supposes a frequent and familiar alienation.
1876. K. Digby, Real Prop., x. § 1. 368. By alienation is meant the intentional and voluntary transfer of a right.
b. The taking of anything from its owner.
1583. Babington, Wks., 319. The forbidding of stealth which is an alienation of an other mans goodes to our selves.
c. Diversion of anything to a different purpose.
1828. Ld. Grenville, Sinking Fund, 59. That of 1786, was … ‘fortified as much as possible against alienation.’
3. The state of being alienated, or held by other than the proper owner.
1818. Todd, Dict., s.v., The estate was wasted during its alienation.
4. Mental alienation: Withdrawal, loss, or derangement of mental faculties; insanity. (So in L.)
1482. Monk of Evesham (1869), 20. That he had seyd hyt of grete febulnesse of his hedde, or by alyenacion of hys mynde.
1607. Topsell, Four-footed Beasts (1673), 272. It infecteth as well the heart as the brain, and causeth alienation of minde.
1748. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. iii. § 6. Temporary alienations of the Mind during violent Passions.
1862. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Const., xiii. 194. He had fallen into a state of mental alienation.
† 5. Alteration, change. Obs.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 503. A Hecticke Feuer in which there is an vtter alienation of the Temperament.
