What's the difference between abstain and desist?

Abstain


Definition:

  • (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.

Desist


Definition:

  • (v. i.) To cease to proceed or act; to stop; to forbear; -- often with from.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The resolution also opens the door for other bodies, such as the European Union and the International Criminal Court, to intensify their pressure on Israel to desist from its illegal practices on the West Bank and its war crimes in Gaza.
  • (2) We suspect that this hazard is more prevalent than its scarcity in the literature would suggest and that potential for unintended injury should be a prominent factor in the decision to proceed or desist with resection of a large neuroblastoma.
  • (3) Manchester United manager Ed Woodward is reported to have sent Chelsea a "terse" letter, warning them to cease and desist in their efforts to sign Wayne Rooney .
  • (4) Functions for the probability of feeding success and desistance over time were derived using data from observations on 300 mosquitoes.
  • (5) Last week the service pleaded with the public to desist from killing wild animals and instead contact the nearest office of the service.
  • (6) The agency’s ability to mute the proceedings was a surprise to Pohl, who issued a cease-and-desist order .
  • (7) He also told those briefing against Ed Miliband to desist, saying they should "get over it" and realise they had lost the Labour leadership election.
  • (8) Similar 22-kilohertz vocalizations occur in other social contexts, and in general they appear to be desist-contact signals.
  • (9) UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon's office has said he is "gravely concerned" and has called on all sides to exercise the utmost restraint and desist from provocative actions: "He strongly condemns the excessive use of force by government security forces against unarmed protestors in the capital Sana'a, resulting in scores of people killed and many more injured."
  • (10) Britain has been an enthusiastic advocate of EU and US sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine conflict, and on Wednesday Cameron warned Putin that if he did not desist from supporting the rebels there would have financial and economic consequences for his country for many years to come.
  • (11) The authors desist from proposing genus and species names for the same reasons.
  • (12) Does a desisting doctor share responsibility, if he refers a patient to another doctor, who he knows would willingly perform prenatal diagnostics?
  • (13) Kaká came on to help Madrid seek it but Jupp Heynckes's side did not desist.
  • (14) The author points out the need for desisting from a scientific posture that switches the professional practice of Psychology into a mere diffusing of the Philosophy of Behavior--instead of resorting to technics aiming at modifying a behavior the patient feels as unpleasant or unadapted.
  • (15) So we have to be very firm and strong about the sanctions and say to Vladimir Putin: ‘What you are doing is unacceptable and it will have economic and financial consequences for many years to come if you do not desist with your behaviour’.” Speaking during a visit to West Sussex, Cameron underlined his intention to keep pressure on European Union partners to maintain the sanctions regime against Russia despite the ceasefire agreement.
  • (16) Houston’s city attorney, David Feldman, sent an email to Uber last month formally asking that it “cease and desist” from encouraging the public to write to officials demanding the introduction of the service.
  • (17) Two years later, in the summer of 2010, UberCab opened in San Francisco with just a small fleet of cars and a handful of employees, to be greeted by a cease-and-desist order from the city’s municipal transportation agency.
  • (18) Michael Gove may decry criticism of British leadership as an “out-of-touch elite”, but aerial photographs have proved that while the German defence had constructed concrete bunkers four deep, as late as 1916 old Oxford cavalrymen like Haig – drawn from class not qualification – desisted from resourcing trench warfare, insisting that a breakthrough was still possible.
  • (19) "It's a very serious situation - the message from the United States is Iran should cease and desist."
  • (20) Most of the time when we get issues like that coming to us we send out a desist notice and we say to the press, 'Look, there's an issue here, you may be in breach of the code, you got those photographs by harassment, you've got an issue to do with the privacy of that family, hold back' and they do.