A-băn'doned, p. a.

p. a. Given up, as to a vice; hence, extremely wicked, or sinning without restraint; irreclaimably wicked; as, an abandoned youth; an abandoned villain.

Synonyms—Forsaken; deserted; destitute; abject; forlorn; profligate; corrupt; vicious; depraved; reprobate; wicked; heinous; criminal; vile; odious; detestable.—ABANDONED, PROFLIGATE, REPROBATE. These adjectives agree in expressing the idea of great personal depravity. Profligate has reference to open and shameless immoralities, either in private life or political conduct; as, a profligate court, a profligate ministry.

You are so witty, profligate, and thin, At once we think thee Milton's Death and Sin. Epigram on Voltaire.

Abandoned is stronger, and has reference to the searing of conscience and hardening of heart produced by a man's giving himself wholly up to iniquity; as, an abandoned villain, a man of abandoned character. Reprobate is still stronger, and describes the condition of one who is so entirely abandoned as to leave no hope of his recovery. Thus, we speak of a person as “given over to a reprobate mind.”