Abstinence from food commonly signifies going without; abstemiousness, partaking moderately; abstinence may be for a single occasion, abstemiousness is habitual moderation. Self-denial is giving up what one wishes; abstinence may be refraining from what one does not desire. Fasting is abstinence from food for a limited time, and generally for religious reasons. Sobriety and temperance signify maintaining a quiet, even temper by moderate indulgence in some things, complete abstinence from others. We speak of temperance in eating, but of abstinence from vice. Total abstinence has come to signify the entire abstaining from intoxicating liquors.
Antonyms:
| drunkenness, | greed, | reveling, | sensuality, |
| excess, | intemperance, | revelry, | wantonness. |
| gluttony, | intoxication, | self-indulgence, |
Preposition:
The negative side of virtue is abstinence from vice.
ABSTRACT, v.
Synonyms:
| appropriate, | distract, | purloin, | steal, |
| detach, | divert, | remove, | take away, |
| discriminate, | eliminate, | separate, | withdraw. |
| distinguish, | |||
The central idea of withdrawing makes abstract in common speech a euphemism for appropriate (unlawfully), purloin, steal. In mental processes we discriminate between objects by distinguishing their differences; we separate some one element from all that does not necessarily belong to it, abstract it, and view it alone. We may separate two ideas, and hold both in mind in[11] comparison or contrast; but when we abstract one of them, we drop the other out of thought. The mind is abstracted when it is withdrawn from all other subjects and concentrated upon one, diverted when it is drawn away from what it would or should attend to by some other interest, distracted when the attention is divided among different subjects, so that it can not be given properly to any. The trouble with the distracted person is that he is not abstracted. Compare [DISCERN].