Refraining from an activity or from the consumption of something, especially alcohol.
'He said that he remained abstinent from alcohol and marijuana for ten years.'
'There's nothing worse than being abstinent because you're due to play soon.'
'I cut right down (ie. largely abstinent except for the odd lapse) a few months ago.'
'In such a traditionally abstinent group, abuse of alcohol leads to shame and loss of traditional culture.'
'Some told The Daily Telegraph that they had no intention of assuring their bishops that they will be sexually abstinent when they ‘marry’ their partners.'
'Disciplined, introverted, abstinent, he achieved both aims, becoming a judo champion and, after law school, KGB recruit.'
'They were about one and a half times more likely to be abstinent from marijuana, alcohol, and other drug use in the year after treatment.'
'It is therefore highly unlikely that he will be abstinent from alcohol unless he was sectioned and in a locked environment.'
'All four, who were abstinent when interviewed, had a history of considerable alcohol misuse in 1997.'
'Patients who had had a myocardial infarction were much more likely to be abstinent at 12 months compared with patients who had undergone bypass surgery.'
((n.) One who abstains.|--|(n.) One of a sect who appeared in France and Spain in the 3d
century.|--|)
Origin:
Late Middle English: via Old French from Latin abstinent- ‘abstaining’, from the verb abstinere (see abstain).
