frequently_asked_questions_files/Oxford Thesaurus.pdf

amoral, wicked, sinful, evil, corrupt, unprincipled,
unrestrained, uninhibited, reprobate; loose, wanton, debauched,
wild, dissolute, dissipated, profligate; depraved, lewd,
lascivious, flagitious: His abandoned behaviour soon landed him
in jail.
abbreviate
v. 1 shorten, compress, contract, truncate, trim, reduce,
curtail: We abbreviated some of the longer words to save space.
2 shorten, cut, condense, abridge, abstract, digest, epitomize,
summarize, US synopsize: The school presented an abbreviated
version of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
abbreviated
adj. skimpy, brief, revealing: The dancers' abbreviated
costumes shocked some members of the audience.
abbreviation
n. initialism; acronym; shortening, contraction: UK is one
kind of abbreviation, or initialism; NATO, which is pronounced
as a word, is another, usually called an acronym.
abdicate v. give up, renounce, disclaim, waive, disown, surrender,
yield, relinquish, abandon, resign, quit: He abdicated all
responsibility for care of the children. She abdicated the
throne to marry a commoner.
abduct v. kidnap, carry off, make away or off with, seize, Slang US
snatch, grab: The child that was abducted is safe.
abet v. 1 encourage, urge, instigate, incite, provoke, egg on, prod,
goad; aid, help, assist: The jury found that his wife had
abetted him in the murder. 2 countenance, approve (of),
support, endorse, second, sanction, condone; further, advance,
promote, uphold: By failing to inform on the terrorists, the
neighbours abetted the bombing.
abeyance n. in abeyance. pending, abeyant, reserved, in reserve,
shelved, pushed or shoved or shunted aside, postponed, put off,
suspended, US tabled; temporarily inactive, dormant; latent;
Colloq in a holding pattern, on the back burner; Slang on hold,
in the deep-freeze, on the shelf, on ice, hanging fire: Legal
proceedings were held in abeyance so that talks could take place