abiding

[ uh-bahy-ding ]

adjective

1. continuing without change; enduring; steadfast:

   an abiding faith.

   Synonyms: unshakable, unchanging, unending

abiding

/ əˈbaɪdɪŋ /

adjective

1. permanent; enduring

   an abiding belief

Derived Forms

• aˈbidingly, adverb

Other Words From

• a·biding·ly adverb
• a·biding·ness noun
• nona·biding adjective
• nona·biding·ly adverb
• nona·biding·ness noun
• una·biding adjective
• una·biding·ly adverb
• una·biding·ness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of abiding¹

First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English; abide + -ing ²

Example Sentences

Babitz lived in New York for a year and tried Paris and Rome, but she found her abiding inspiration in much-maligned and misunderstood Los Angeles, which she rarely left in the last 50 years of her life.

From Washington Post

She brought forth the Sky and the Sea all by herself, in an attempt to build an ever-sure abiding-place for her future family.

From Nautilus

It’s paced ­differently—yields a bigger pop in exchange for a more abiding patience on the reader’s part.

From Time

Shepherds abiding in the field” saw colorful Christmas lights that “shone round about them.

From The Daily Beast

The cops had come up short, unable to find the two men in a sea of several hundred thousand law-abiding people.

From The Daily Beast

But at night, on the stand, there would be no abiding satisfaction for him in what he had done in the past.

From The Daily Beast

Most Muslims, like most people everywhere, are peaceable and law-abiding.

From The Daily Beast

The US must ensure its honor abroad by abiding by its commitments and standing with its allies.

From The Daily Beast

Now this setting up of an orderly law-abiding self seems to me to imply that there are impulses which make for order.

From Project Gutenberg

To be law-abiding means to acquiesce, if not directly participate, in that conspiracy.

From Project Gutenberg

By all enabled to behold his glory, is he received as an enduring token of good, yea, as the abiding reality of all good.

From Project Gutenberg

What strange abiding-places worlds lighted solely by red suns must be!

From Project Gutenberg

They're bipeds—lizardoid rather than humanoid—and are a fairly intelligent and law-abiding lot.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• continuing
• enduring
• eternal
• everlasting
• lasting
• persistent
• steadfast