(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.
Boycott
Definition:
(v. t.) To combine against (a landlord, tradesman, employer, or other person), to withhold social or business relations from him, and to deter others from holding such relations; to subject to a boycott.
(n.) The process, fact, or pressure of boycotting; a combining to withhold or prevent dealing or social intercourse with a tradesman, employer, etc.; social and business interdiction for the purpose of coercion.
Example Sentences:
(1) As 1,000 fishing boats were on their way to the islands the Chinese know as Diaoyu and the Japanese call the Senkaku, the People's Daily warned on Monday that the incident could lead to a full-blown trade boycott.
(2) Fry, who has more than six million followers on Twitter, is an influential voice in the campaign to boycott the Sochi Games, comparing the situation to the decision to hold the 1936 Olympics in Nazi Germany.
(3) However, this boycott ended after a mere six days on Tuesday when Trump appeared on O’Reilly’s show.
(4) I support the boycott discourse, but in order to develop this discourse, we need highly developed political consciousness.
(5) On top of that, Colorado might have trouble even obtaining the drugs necessary to perform an execution, since a European-led boycott limited access to the drugs .
(6) In August, the capital came to a standstill as terrified workers were forced to stay home after gang leaders orchestrated a forced public transport boycott by killing a dozen bus drivers in response to a crackdown by authorities against organised crime.
(7) With calls to boycott Amazon over its corporation tax avoidance, taxpayers may be glad of alternatives.
(8) And Mick Brookes, general secretary of the National Association of Headteachers, which is also calling on members to back the boycott, said there were ways of moderating teacher assessment to make it more reliable.
(9) They provoked threats of a player boycott, led sponsors to withdraw support and created a racially charged image problem in the midst of the NBA playoffs that even President Barack Obama remarked upon.
(10) A spokesperson for Boycott Workfare, a grassroots organisation that has campaigned to stop forced unpaid work schemes, said the move was disgusting.
(11) David Cameron has attacked Labour's "rank hypocrisy" in calling for him to boycott the Commonwealth summit in Sri Lanka as he claimed his visit to the country's war-torn north will help give a voice to the dispossessed.
(12) US hawks, such as senator Lindsey Graham, had suggested a boycott in retaliation for allowing Snowden to remain in the country.
(13) Internet chatrooms have been buzzing with messages condemning Tokyo's response, with some calling for a boycott of Japanese goods.
(14) SodaStream has come under fire from pro-Palestinian activist groups, who have called for an official boycott of all the company's products.
(15) In 2015, Pence signed an anti-LGBT bill opponents said would allow wide-scale discrimination, kicking off a furious and costly boycott of the state by much of corporate America.
(16) Despite talk of a boycott, there will be no repeat of the 1980 Moscow Olympics, when the US refused to participate, or the Los Angeles Games four years later, the subject of a similar Soviet-led boycott.
(17) With the result not in doubt and the opposition’s call for a boycott, the number of people who vote in the three-day ballot matters.
(18) We reported that George Galloway MP had called for a boycott of 'Israel's shops'.
(19) This is payback, without a doubt.” The workers recently won the support of Will Self, who supported a boycott of the venue, writing : “If the punters wake up and smell the crap coffee of corporate greed, perhaps we won’t be so keen on contributing to those revenues.
(20) There have been widespread calls on social media for a boycott of the brand after Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana, who are themselves gay, said: “We oppose gay adoptions.