What's the difference between abstain and retain?

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.

Retain


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To continue to hold; to keep in possession; not to lose, part with, or dismiss; to retrain from departure, escape, or the like.
  • (v. t.) To keep in pay; to employ by a preliminary fee paid; to hire; to engage; as, to retain a counselor.
  • (v. t.) To restrain; to prevent.
  • (v. i.) To belong; to pertain.
  • (v. i.) To keep; to continue; to remain.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The femoral component, made of Tivanium with titanium mesh attached to it by a new process called diffusion bonding, retains superalloy fatigue strength characteristics.
  • (2) But RWE admitted it had often only been able to retain customers with expired contracts by offering them new deals with more favourable conditions.
  • (3) Their particular electrophoretic mobility was retained.
  • (4) The cis isomer was retained longer in liver, particularly in mitochondria, but had low retention in that portion of the endoplasmic reticulum isolated as the rough membrane fraction.
  • (5) Despite this alteration in subcellular distribution, the mutant polypeptide retained the ability to induce fibroblast transformation by several parameters, including the ability to display anchorage-independent growth.
  • (6) They retained the ability to make this discrimination when the coloured stimuli were placed against a background bright enough to saturate the rods.3.
  • (7) By adjustment to the swaying movements of the horse, the child feels how to retain straightening alignment, symmetry and balance.
  • (8) ITV retained its quasi-feudal structure until the 1990s.
  • (9) This "paradox of redistribution" was certainly observable in Britain, where Welfare retained its status as one of the 20th century's most exalted creations, even while those claiming benefits were treated with ever greater contempt.
  • (10) Ultraviolet difference spectrophotometry indicates that the inactivated enzyme retains its capacity for binding the nucleotide substrates whereas the spectral perturbation characteristic of 3-phosphoglycerate binding is abolished in the modified enzyme.
  • (11) In a newspaper interview last month, Shapps said the BBC needed to tackle what he said was a culture of secrecy, waste and unbalanced reporting if it hoped to retain the full £3.6bn raised by the licence fee after the current Royal Charter expires in 2016.
  • (12) The most serious complications following operative treatment are retained bile duct calculi (2.8%), wound infection and biliary fistulae.
  • (13) Bivalent F(ab')(2) also retains its insulin-like effects.
  • (14) In this study, a technique is described by which large obturators can be retained with an acrylic resin head plate.
  • (15) At the end of the dusting period those animals treated with normally charged dust had significantly more chrysotile retained in their lungs than animals exposed to discharged dust.
  • (16) The fact that the security service was in possession of and retained the copy tape until the early summer of 1985 and did not bring it to the attention of Mr Stalker is wholly reprehensible,” he wrote.
  • (17) Formula fed infants retained more nitrogen and gained weight faster.
  • (18) As an extension of the previous study which indicated that mesoglea is a primitive basement membrane which has retained some characteristics of interstitial extracellular matrix, the present study was undertaken to analyze the role of mesoglea components during head regeneration in Hydra vulgaris.
  • (19) The resulting cell lines have a stable phenotype and retain the changes which result from transformation even after extended passaging.
  • (20) Protein synthesis in cell-free extracts from resistant or susceptible bacteria was equally susceptible to inhibition by Cd(2+), but spheroplasts from resistant bacteria retained their resistance.