ABJECT

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does abject mean? 

• ABJECT (adjective)
  The adjective ABJECT has 4 senses:

1. of the most contemptible kind

2. most unfortunate or miserable

3. showing utter resignation or hopelessness

4. showing humiliation or submissiveness

  Familiarity information: ABJECT used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ABJECT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of the most contemptible kind

Synonyms:

abject; low; low-down; miserable; scummy; scurvy

Context example:

a scurvy trick

Similar:

contemptible (deserving of contempt or scorn)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Most unfortunate or miserable

Context example:

abject poverty

Similar:

unfortunate (not favored by fortune; marked or accompanied by or resulting in ill fortune)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Showing utter resignation or hopelessness

Synonyms:

abject; unhopeful

Context example:

abject surrender

Similar:

hopeless (without hope because there seems to be no possibility of comfort or success)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Showing humiliation or submissiveness

Context example:

an abject apology

Similar:

submissive (inclined or willing to submit to orders or wishes of others or showing such inclination)

 Context examples 

Johnson must have joined him immediately, so that his abject and grovelling conduct on deck for the past few days had been no more than planned deception.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

They are strong and hardy, but of a cowardly spirit, and, by consequence, insolent, abject, and cruel.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Yet mine shall not be the submission of abject slavery.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Miserable little propitiators of a remorseless Idol, how abject we were to him!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Mamma was an abject slave to their caprices, but Papa was not so easily subjugated, and occasionally afflicted his tender spouse by an attempt at paternal discipline with his obstreperous son.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He did not know how abject a coward the other was, and thought he was coming back intent on fighting.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

But the words were hardly uttered, before the smile was struck out of his face and succeeded by an expression of such abject terror and despair, as froze the very blood of the two gentlemen below.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

He was abject before Wolf Larsen and almost grovelled to Johansen.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

"A characteristic, but not exactly complimentary, congratulation," returned Laurie, still in an abject attitude, but beaming with satisfaction.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

To be a great and virtuous man appeared the highest honour that can befall a sensitive being; to be base and vicious, as many on record have been, appeared the lowest degradation, a condition more abject than that of the blind mole or harmless worm.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)