Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The habit or practice of abstaining or refraining, especially from food.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun rare Abstinence.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

abstinence +‎ -y

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Examples

  • Besides all this, to provide diligently that there be public prayers and supplications made in time of necessity, together with fastings, that is, a holy abstinency, and most carefully to look to those things which belong to the tranquillity, peace, and safety of the Church.

    The Creeds of the Evangelical Protestant Churches. 1889

  • President Obama's budget approves $114 million for a new "teenage pregnancy prevention"   initiative that will fund only programs that have evidence of success -- which seems like a reasonable requirement, especially critics of abstinency only programs.

    McCook Daily Gazette Headlines 2010

  • President Obama's budget approves $114 million for a new "teenage pregnancy prevention"   initiative that will fund only programs that have evidence of success -- which seems like a reasonable requirement, especially critics of abstinency only programs.

    McCook Daily Gazette Headlines 2010

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