1. sunk to low condition
2. grovelling
3. mean
4. despicable

Etymology

From Latin abiectus, past participle of abicere ("to reject"), formed from ab- + iacere ("to throw").

Pronunciation

• enPR: ăbʹjĕkt, IPA: /ˈbdʒɛkt/, SAMPA: /"{bdZEkt/ or enPR: ăbʹjĭkt, IPA: /ˈbdʒɪkt/, SAMPA: /"{bdZIkt/
• Rhymes: -ɛkt
• Audio (UK) ^[?]

Adjective

abject (comparative abjecter or more abject, superlative abjectest or most abject)

1. Sunk to a low condition; down in spirit or hope; degraded; servile; grovelling; despicable; as, abject posture, fortune, thoughts.
   
   "Base and abject flatterers." - Joseph Addison
   "An abject liar." - Thomas Babington Macaulay
   "And banish hence these abject, lowly dreams." - Shakespeare, Taming of the Shrew, I-ii
   "He sat obediently with that tentative and abject eagerness of a man who has but one pleasure left and whom the world can reach only through one sense, for he was both blind and deaf." - 1931 Faulkner, Sanctuary, ii
2. (obsolete) Cast down; rejected; low-lying.
   
   "So thick bestrown abject and lost lay these, covering the flood." - John Milton

Synonyms

• beggarly, contemptible, cringing, degraded, groveling, ignoble, mean, mean-spirited, slavish, vile, worthless

Related terms

• abjectly
• abjectness

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