alienate

Definition of alienate

Etymology

Latin alienatus, past participle of alienare, from alienus. See alien, and confer aliene.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈeɪ.li.ə.neɪt/, SAMPA: /"eI.li.@.neIt/

Adjective

alienate (not comparable)

1. Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; with from.
   
   alienate from God. John Milton. Paradise Lost line 4643.

Noun

alienate (plural alienates)

1. (obsolete) A stranger; an alien.

Verb

to alienate (third-person singular simple present alienates, present participle alienating, simple past and past participle alienated)

1. To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.
2. To estrange; to withdraw affections or attention; to make indifferent or averse, where love or friendship before subsisted; to wean; with from.
   
   The errors which... alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart. - Thomas Babington Macaulay.
   The recollection of his former life is a dream that only the more alienates him from the realities of the present.- Isaac Taylor.

Synonyms

• estrange
• antagonize
• isolate

References

• alienate in Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913