alienate
English
Etymology
From Middle English alienat, from Latin aliēnātus, perfect passive participle of aliēnō (“alienate, estrange”), from aliēnus. See alien, and confer aliene.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈeɪ.li.ə.neɪt/
Adjective
alienate (not comparable)
- (archaic, followed by "from") Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign
- 1667, John Milton. Paradise Lost (line 4643)
- O alienate from God.
- 1667, John Milton. Paradise Lost (line 4643)
Verb
alienate (third-person singular simple present alienates, present participle alienating, simple past and past participle alienated)
- To convey or transfer to another, as title, property, or right; to part voluntarily with ownership of.
- To estrange; to withdraw affections or attention from; to make indifferent or averse, where love or friendship before subsisted.
- (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.
- (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Babington Macaulay:
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, marginalize
Antonyms
- (estrange): accept
Translations
to convey or transfer
to estrange
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- 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 Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.
Italian
Verb
alienate
- second-person plural present of alienare
- second-person plural imperative of alienare
- feminine plural past participle of alienare
Latin
Middle English
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