What's the difference between abstain and obtain?

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.

Obtain


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To hold; to keep; to possess.
  • (v. t.) To get hold of by effort; to gain possession of; to procure; to acquire, in any way.
  • (v. i.) To become held; to gain or have a firm footing; to be recognized or established; to subsist; to become prevalent or general; to prevail; as, the custom obtains of going to the seashore in summer.
  • (v. i.) To prevail; to succeed.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A former Labour minister, Nicholas Brown, said the public were frightened they "were going to be spied on" and that "illegally obtained" information would find its way to the public domain.
  • (2) Sperm specimens were obtained from 13 men participating in our in vitro fertilization program.
  • (3) As a consequence, similar response curves were obtained for urine specimens containing morphine or barbiturates.
  • (4) The nuclear origin of the Ha antigen was confirmed by the speckled nuclear immunofluorescence staining pattern given by purified antibody to Ha obtained from a specific immune precipitate.
  • (5) Manometric studies with resting cells obtained by growth on each of these sulfur sources yielded net oxygen uptake for all substrates except sulfite and dithionate.
  • (6) Although measurements are easily obtained with a tape measure, the validity of these measurements is not known.
  • (7) Multiple overlapping thin 3D slab acquisition is presented as a magnitude contrast (time of flight) technique which combines advantages from multiple thin slice 2D and direct 3D volume acquisitions to obtain high-resolution cross-sectional images of vessel detail.
  • (8) Since 1987, it has become possible to obtain immature ova from the living animal and to let them mature, fertilize and develop into embryos capable of transplantation outside the body.
  • (9) Symptomatic improvement was obtained in 14 of the 15 hands, and sensory-evoked response improved in 13 hands.
  • (10) These data indicate that RNA faithfully transfers "suppressive" as well as "positive" types of immune responses that have been reported previously for lymphocytes obtained directly from tumour-bearing and tumour-immune animals.
  • (11) These observations were confirmed by the killing curves in pooled serum obtained at peak and trough levels.
  • (12) The obtained results are used to study the relation between the acoustic characteristics of these vowels and the corresponding articulatory dimensions.
  • (13) Scatchard analyses of binding data obtained with synaptosomal preparations from 17-day-old embryos revealed two T3 binding sites.
  • (14) In the present study, respirometric quotients, the ratio of oral air volume expended to total volume expended, were obtained using separate but simultaneous productions of oral and nasal airflow.
  • (15) Maximal yields of lipid and aflatoxin were obtained with 30% glucose, whereas mold growth, expressed as dry weight, was maximal when the medium contained 10% glucose.
  • (16) Flow cytometric DNA analysis was performed on both fresh and on paraffin embedded samples obtained by gastroscopic biopsies in 5 patients with histologically normal gastric mucosa (20 specimens) and by radical gastrectomies in 9 cases of human gastric cancer (36 specimens).
  • (17) In experiments performed to determine whether PtdIns(4,5)P2 hydrolysis induced by TRH may have been caused by the elevation of [Ca2+]i, the following results were obtained: the effect of TRH to decrease the level of PtdIns(4,5)P2 was not reproduced by the calcium ionophore A23187 or by membrane depolarization with 50 mM K+; the calcium antagonist TMB-8 did not inhibit the TRH-induced decrease in PtdIns(4,5)P2; and, most importantly, inhibition by EGTA of the elevation of [Ca2+]i did not inhibit the TRH-induced decrease in PtdIns(4,5)P2.
  • (18) Variables included an ego-delay measure obtained from temporal estimations, perceptions of temporal dominance and relatedness obtained from Cottle's Circles Test, Ss' ages, and a measure of long-term posthospital adjustment.
  • (19) Data obtained with fenoldopam were corroborated with use of SK&F 38393, another dopamine D1-receptor agonist.
  • (20) Bipolar derivations with the maximum PSE always included the locations with the maximum PSE obtained from a linked ears reference.