alienate

English

Etymology

Latin aliēnātus, perfect passive participle of aliēnō (“alienate, estrange”), from aliēnus. See alien, and confer aliene.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈeɪ.li.ə.neɪt/, SAMPA: /"eI.li.@.neIt/

Adjective

alienate (not comparable)

1. Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; with from.

   O alienate from God. John Milton. Paradise Lost line 4643.

Noun

alienate (plural alienates)

1. (obsolete) A stranger; an alien.

Verb

alienate (third-person singular simple present alienates, present participle alienating, simple past and past participle alienated)

1. To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.
2. To estrange; to withdraw affections or attention from; to make indifferent or averse, where love or friendship before subsisted; to wean.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Babington Macaulay:

     The errors which […] alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Isaac Taylor:

     The recollection of his former life is a dream that only the more alienates him from the realities of the present.

Usage notes

Alienate is largely synonymous with estrange. However, alienate is used primarily to refer to driving off (“he alienated her with his atrocious behavior”) or to offend a group (“the imprudent remarks alienated the urban demographic”), while estrange is used rather to mean “cut off relations”, particularly in a family setting.

Synonyms

• (estrange): estrange, antagonize, isolate

Translations

To convey or transfer

Catalan: alienar (ca) Dutch: vervreemden (nl)

French: aliéner (fr) Spanish: alienar (es)

To estrange

Catalan: alienar (ca) Dutch: vervreemden (nl) French: aliéner (fr)

Hebrew: ניכר (he) (nikér) Portuguese: alienar (pt) Spanish: alienar (es)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Bulgarian: отчуждавам (bg) Czech: odcizit (cs) German: entfremden (de)

Gilbertese: bure Italian: alienare (it) Latin: abaliēnō (la), aliēnō (la)

References

• alienate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

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Italian

Adjective

alienate pl.

1. feminine form of alienato

Noun

alienate f.

1. Plural form of alienata.

Verb

alienate

1. second-person plural present tense of alienare
2. second-person plural imperative of alienare
3. feminine plural past participle of alienare

Anagrams

• aneliate

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Latin

Verb

aliēnāte

1. first-person plural present active imperative of aliēnō