abjure

American  

[ab-joor, -jur] / æbˈdʒʊər, -ˈdʒɜr /

verb (used with object)

abjured, abjuring

1. to renounce, repudiate, or retract, especially with formal solemnity; recant.

   to abjure one's errors.

2. to renounce or give up under oath; forswear.

   to abjure allegiance.

3. to avoid or shun.

---

abjure British  

/ əbˈdʒʊə /

verb

1. to renounce or retract, esp formally, solemnly, or under oath

2. to abstain from or reject

---

Other Word Forms

• abjuration noun
• abjuratory adjective
• abjurer noun
• nonabjuratory adjective
• unabjuratory adjective
• unabjured adjective

Etymology

Origin of abjure

1400–50; late Middle English < Latin abjūrāre to deny on oath, equivalent to ab- ab- + jūrāre to swear; jury ¹

Example Sentences

By 1907, when Sargent was 51, he’d had enough: “No more paughtraits,” he wrote in a now-famous note, “I abhor and abjure them and hope never to do another especially of the Upper Classe.”

From Washington Post • Mar. 5, 2020

Johnson managed to abjure his past and, on the march toward an exceptionally successful career, leave it behind.

From The New Yorker • Dec. 12, 2018

Press notes indicate some serial business ahead, putting extra pressure on Astral's decision whether to remain mortal and forever abjure the company of fairies, or to get back to where she once belonged.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 8, 2016

Writing in The New York Times in 1965, Howard Taubman concluded that while “not a great musical,” the show “has the courage to abjure garishness and stridency.”

From New York Times • May 10, 2015

He was arrested on the charge of being a priest, but, although extraordinary efforts were made to induce him to abjure his opinions, he remained firm.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 13, Slice 4 "Hero" to "Hindu Chronology" by Various