RENUNCIATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does renunciation mean? 

• RENUNCIATION (noun)
  The noun RENUNCIATION has 4 senses:

1. rejecting or disowning or disclaiming as invalid

2. the state of having rejected your religious beliefs or your political party or a cause (often in favor of opposing beliefs or causes)

3. an act (spoken or written) declaring that something is surrendered or disowned

4. the act of renouncing; sacrificing or giving up or surrendering (a possession or right or title or privilege etc.)

  Familiarity information: RENUNCIATION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RENUNCIATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Rejecting or disowning or disclaiming as invalid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

renunciation; repudiation

Context example:

Congressional repudiation of the treaty that the President had negotiated

Hypernyms ("renunciation" is a kind of...):

rejection (the speech act of rejecting)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "renunciation"):

disclaimer ((law) a voluntary repudiation of a person's legal claim to something)

disowning; disownment (refusal to acknowledge as one's own)

Derivation:

renounce (cast off)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The state of having rejected your religious beliefs or your political party or a cause (often in favor of opposing beliefs or causes)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

apostasy; defection; renunciation

Hypernyms ("renunciation" is a kind of...):

rejection (the state of being rejected)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An act (spoken or written) declaring that something is surrendered or disowned

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

renouncement; renunciation

Hypernyms ("renunciation" is a kind of...):

resignation (the act of giving up (a claim or office or possession etc.))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "renunciation"):

relinquishing; relinquishment (a verbal act of renouncing a claim or right or position etc.)

Derivation:

renounce (turn away from; give up)

renounce (give up, such as power, as of monarchs and emperors, or duties and obligations)

Sense 4

Meaning:

The act of renouncing; sacrificing or giving up or surrendering (a possession or right or title or privilege etc.)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

forgoing; forswearing; renunciation

Hypernyms ("renunciation" is a kind of...):

rejection (the act of rejecting something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "renunciation"):

forsaking; giving up (the act of forsaking)

abnegation; denial; self-abnegation; self-denial; self-renunciation (renunciation of your own interests in favor of the interests of others)

Derivation:

renounce (give up, such as power, as of monarchs and emperors, or duties and obligations)

 Context examples 

He must make a personal reform in all things, even to tooth-washing and neck-gear, though a starched collar affected him as a renunciation of freedom.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Hyde was thenceforth impossible; whether I would or not, I was now confined to the better part of my existence; and O, how I rejoiced to think of it! with what willing humility I embraced anew the restrictions of natural life! with what sincere renunciation I locked the door by which I had so often gone and come, and ground the key under my heel!

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

She had been undecided, on leaving Dover, whether or no to give the finishing touch to that renunciation of mankind in which she had been educated, by marrying a pilot; but she decided against that venture.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Renunciation, sacrifice, patience, industry, and high endeavor were the principles she thus indirectly preached—such abstractions being objectified in her mind by her father, and Mr. Butler, and by Andrew Carnegie, who, from a poor immigrant boy had arisen to be the book-giver of the world.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

How the emigrants never wrote home, otherwise than cheerfully and hopefully; how Mr. Micawber had actually remitted divers small sums of money, on account of those pecuniary liabilities, in reference to which he had been so business-like as between man and man; how Janet, returning into my aunt's service when she came back to Dover, had finally carried out her renunciation of mankind by entering into wedlock with a thriving tavern-keeper; and how my aunt had finally set her seal on the same great principle, by aiding and abetting the bride, and crowning the marriage-ceremony with her presence; were among our topics—already more or less familiar to me through the letters I had had.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)