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abstention

UK/əbˈstɛn.ʃn̩/US/æbˈstɛn.ʃn̩/
nounC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,608 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: abstentions

Abstention is choosing not to vote, or holding back from something. Record an abstention, three abstentions, a policy of abstention.

In a vote it is a recorded position rather than an absence, which is what makes it different from not turning up. Whether abstentions count towards a threshold is a rule that decides real outcomes.

Definitions of abstention

  1. 1nounabstentionChoosing not to vote, or holding back from something.C1

    “Her abstention from the vote angered both sides.”

abstention is a choice.

Where it comes from

Latin abstentio comes from abstinere, to hold back, from abs plus tenere, to hold.

  1. Latin

    abstēntiō

  2. French

    abstention

  3. English, today

    abstention

First attested in 1521. Borrowed from French abstention, from Latin abstēntiō from Latin abstinēō (“withhold, to abstain”)

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

abstention in the wild

  • Along with abstention, or not voting, protest voting is a sign of unhappiness with available options.

    Protest vote

  • Under Pullman abstention, the federal court retains jurisdiction to hear the case if the state court's resolution is still constitutionally suspect.

    Railroad Commission v. Pullman Co.

  • The case is the namesake of Younger abstention.

    Younger v. Harris

  • Sun Oil Co., 319 U.S. 315, was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court created a new doctrine of abstention.

    Burford v. Sun Oil Co.

  • The government was composed of the DC, PSI, PSDI and PRI, with the abstention of the PLI.

    Forlani government

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.