(v. i.) To hold one's self aloof; to forbear or refrain voluntarily, and especially from an indulgence of the passions or appetites; -- with from.
(v. t.) To hinder; to withhold.
Example Sentences:
(1) Also critical to Mr Smith's victory was the decision over lunch of the MSF technical union's delegation to abstain on the rule changes.
(2) Abstainer rates in the total population controlled for treatment decreased with increasing WPY (P less than 0.005).
(3) The adjusted odds ratio of having one or more hospitalization for current drinkers relative to life-long abstainers in females was 0.67 (95 per cent confidence interval 0.57-0.79) and in males was 0.74 (0.57-0.96).
(4) Britain and France formally announced this week they would abstain, along with Portugal and Bosnia.
(5) Although close to 50% of this sample were abstainers, 11% of the drinkers were found to be heavy drinkers, averaging more than two drinks daily, while 18% were high-maximum drinkers, consuming at least five drinks on an occasion prior to pregnancy.
(6) Compared to abstainers, the heaviest drinkers had the highest systolic (JM, p = 0.001; WM, p less than 0.01) and diastolic (JM, p less than 0.002; WM, p less than 0.05) blood pressures.
(7) The Labour leadership is understood to be pressing for its MPs to abstain on the grounds that the party’s policy is under review and the real vote on Trident will come in the decisive “main gate” decision on renewal next year.
(8) But the prime minister failed to win the support of more than half of his 303 MPs after 136 Tories rejected the measure and around 40 Tory MPs either did not vote or actively abstained.
(9) 36% of the group had abstained from further drug taking, 27% were taking them periodically, 32% had to be treated again and 5% had deteriorated (trend towards invalidism).
(10) Their occurrence rules out any organic involvement almost with certainty, and allows abstaining from additional examinations, or keeping them within minimum limits.
(11) They all abstain from social media for fear of getting embroiled in some brouhaha.
(12) Heidi Allen, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire, abstained in last week’s vote but said she and others would defy the party whip if concessions were not offered.
(13) Fourteen months later, 41 subjects (41%) were classified as resumers; 62 (59%) were abstainers.
(14) This finding indicates that many young people exaggerate the risk of losing status among their peers because they abstain from drinking.
(15) At their explosive 80-minute meeting, the union's delegates - who hold 4.5 per cent of the vote - voted by 19-17 to abstain because the OMOV rule change included a further measure promoting more women MPs, one of the union's longstanding causes.
(16) All subjects had been instructed to abstain from smoking for at least 10 h before and during the examination.
(17) The CDC and other health agencies have been operating for months on the assumption that Zika causes brain defects, and they have been warning pregnant women to use mosquito repellent, avoid travel to Zika-stricken regions and either abstain from sex or rely on condoms.
(18) On same-sex marriage, Leadsom said she supported partnerships between gay couples but had reservations about the legislation that led her to abstain during the parliamentary vote.
(19) The salivary cotinine concentration after 1 week in 60 abstainers was 183 ng.ml-1.
(20) Never smoking abstainers die at about the same rate as never smoking moderate drinkers.
Aloof
Definition:
(n.) Same as Alewife.
(adv.) At or from a distance, but within view, or at a small distance; apart; away.
(adv.) Without sympathy; unfavorably.
(prep.) Away from; clear from.
Example Sentences:
(1) He strikes me more as a clever man - oh, very clever - than a necessarily charming man; for there's a distance, an aloofness.
(2) "He understands that the public see him as privileged, aloof, that they don't like him as a person," says Ganesh.
(3) The solution is for Hathaway to spend a year in sarky Manchester, where her attempts to go jogging will be thwarted by 324 days of rain, and if she so much as thinks about telling a Mancunian barmaid that she has poured those lagers fantastically well, she will swiftly learn an aloofness not taught in any American drama school.
(4) The psychopathological risk is the "burning out" of the subject, and the defences developed against it, such as humour (casualness), aloofness (abdication), deviance and drug-dependence.
(5) "I don't think he is aloof at all," says the Today editor.
(6) Britain had previously held aloof from the feuds of Europe's nation states.
(7) Does the colour of Campbell skin make us more likely to interpret her behaviour as intimidating, as difficult, rather than simply as aloof, or withdrawn?
(8) Fearing false accusation, adults still stay aloof even when a child might possibly be in danger.
(9) The mother is irascible, the father aloof; on the other hand, the parental combination "mother and father affectionate" is more common.
(10) They were aloof, blokey and arrogant," said one sports broadcasting veteran.
(11) I know that I can be perceived as aloof or cold or unemotional,” Clinton said.
(12) Our first response is often to bristle at any suggestion of censure, and in doing so we risk coming across as aloof, paternalistic and insensitive to the genuine concerns of others.
(13) Alan Yentob, the BBC's creative director, denied the charge that the programme makers are aloof and told the Observer that Danny Cohen, the head of BBC1, and other commissioning editors, including Younghusband, have repeatedly reviewed what went wrong and are changing procedures following the death of controversial figures.
(14) Since the extravert is the more sociable, excitement-seeking, carefree individual, while the introvert is more retiring, aloof and introspective, it would be worthwhile in future research to determine whether the dominance, vs. submissive or the high vs. low status dimension is the essential correlate of these spatial differences.
(15) Woman at centre of South Korean row says she 'deserves death' Read more Park has already been criticised for being aloof and relying on only a few longstanding confidantes.
(16) Ministers continue to grumble that the PM is too aloof, delegating messy domestic policy to the DPM.
(17) From the start, nobody has been less aloof, more assertive, nor more influential than the oil and gas industry.
(18) The main results of this study were the identification of: a) emotionally unstable patients (42%) who did not respond to the above mentioned selection criterion; b) stable psychological traits such as hostility, aloofness, extroversion as described in type A Behavior Pattern and c) the presence of secondary alexitimic responses suggesting a protective denial of the meaning of the disease.
(19) He is the hands-on chief executive to Cameron’s aloof chairman of the board and is therefore the natural focus of Labour’s opprobrium.
(20) She writes: If the Southern Rail fiasco has taught us anything it’s surely that travellers need to stand (conveniently) shoulder to shoulder against operating companies, rather than maintain their usual mutual aloofness.