Wiktionary

alienate

English

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Etymology

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From Middle English alienat, from Latin aliēnātus, perfect passive participle of aliēnō (“alienate, estrange”), from aliēnus, by surface analysis, alien +‎ -ate. See alien, and compare aliene.

Pronunciation

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Adjective

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alienate (not comparable)

  1. (archaic, followed by "from") Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign
    • 1667, John Milton, “(please specify the page number)”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC, line 4643:
      O alienate from God.

Noun

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alienate (plural alienates)

  1. (obsolete) A stranger; an alien.

Verb

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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.
    • 1849–1861, Thomas Babington Macaulay, chapter 1, in The History of England from the Accession of James the Second, volumes (please specify |volume=I to V), London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans, →OCLC:
      The errors which […] alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart.
    • 1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC:
      The recollection of his former life is a dream that only the more alienates him from the realities of the present.
    • 1941, George Orwell, The Lion and the Unicorn:
      The Communists had considerable influence in the Labour Party in the years 1920–26 and 1935–9. Their chief importance, and that of the whole left wing of the Labour movement, was the part they played in alienating the middle classes from Socialism.
    • 2023 March 22, Mike Esbester, “Staff, the public and industry will suffer”, in RAIL, number 979, page 39:
      In April and early May, the NUR and ASLEF threatened a three-day strike. Opinion on this was divided, both within the unions and among the public. Commentators saw the strike as likely to alienate the public and unlikely to win significant changes in terms of closures and job losses.
  3. To cause one to feel unable to relate.

Usage notes

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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

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

References

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Italian

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Etymology 1

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Adjective

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alienate f pl

  1. feminine plural of alienato

Participle

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alienate f pl

  1. feminine plural of alienato

Etymology 2

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Noun

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alienate f

  1. plural of alienata

Etymology 3

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Verb

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alienate

  1. inflection of alienare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Anagrams

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Latin

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Verb

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aliēnāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of aliēnō

Middle English

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Adjective

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alienate

  1. Alternative form of alienat

Spanish

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Verb

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alienate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of alienar combined with te
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