ABJURATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does abjuration mean? 

• ABJURATION (noun)
  The noun ABJURATION has 1 sense:

1. a disavowal or taking back of a previous assertion

  Familiarity information: ABJURATION used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ABJURATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A disavowal or taking back of a previous assertion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

abjuration; recantation; retraction

Hypernyms ("abjuration" is a kind of...):

disavowal; disclaimer (denial of any connection with or knowledge of)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "abjuration"):

backdown; climb-down; withdrawal (a retraction of a previously held position)

Derivation:

abjure (formally reject or disavow a formerly held belief, usually under pressure)

 Context examples 

Though I made no further observation of her at the moment, I may mention here what I did not discover until afterwards, namely, that she was one of a series of protegees whom my aunt had taken into her service expressly to educate in a renouncement of mankind, and who had generally completed their abjuration by marrying the baker.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)