Emily Dickinson Lexicon

A-BAN'DON, v.t. [Fr. abandonner; Sp. and Port. abandonar It. abbandonare; said to be from ban, and donner, to give over to the ban or proscription; or from a or ab and bandum, a flag or ensign.]

1. To forsake entirely; as, to abandon a hopeless enterprise. Woe to that generation by which the testimony of God shall be abandoned. – Dr. Mason.
2. To renounce and forsake; to leave with a view never to return; to desert as lost or desperate; as, to abandon a country; to abandon a cause or party.
3. To give up or resign without control, as when a person yields himself, without restraint, to a propensity; as, to abandon one's self to intemperance. Abandoned over and abandoned of, are obsolete.
4. To resign; to yield, relinquish, or give over entirely. Verus abandoned the cares of empire to his wiser colleague. – Gibbon.
5. In commerce, to relinquish to insurers all claim to a ship or goods insured, as a preliminary toward recovering for a total loss. – Park.