alienate

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English [edit]

Etymology [edit]

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

Pronunciation [edit]

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

Adjective [edit]

alienate (not comparable)

  1. Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; with from.
    O alienate from God. John Milton. Paradise Lost line 4643.

Noun [edit]

alienate (plural alienates)

  1. (obsolete) A stranger; an alien.

Verb [edit]

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 [edit]

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 [edit]

Translations [edit]

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References [edit]


Italian [edit]

Adjective [edit]

alienate f pl

  1. feminine plural form of alienato

Noun [edit]

alienate f

  1. Plural form of alienata

Verb [edit]

alienate

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

Anagrams [edit]


Latin [edit]

Verb [edit]

aliēnāte

  1. first-person plural present active imperative of aliēnō