Abject

abject
    adj 1: of the most contemptible kind; "abject cowardice"; "a low
           stunt to pull"; "a low-down sneak"; "his miserable
           treatment of his family"; "You miserable skunk!"; "a
           scummy rabble"; "a scurvy trick" [syn: {abject}, {low},
           {low-down}, {miserable}, {scummy}, {scurvy}]
    2: most unfortunate or miserable; "the most abject slaves joined
       in the revolt"; "abject poverty"
    3: showing utter resignation or hopelessness; "abject surrender"
       [syn: {abject}, {unhopeful}]
    4: showing humiliation or submissiveness; "an abject apology"
    

Abject \Ab*ject"\ ([a^]b*j[e^]kt"), v. t. [From {Abject}, a.]
   To cast off or down; hence, to abase; to degrade; to lower;
   to debase. [Obs.] --Donne.
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Abject \Ab"ject\ ([a^]b"j[e^]kt), n.
   A person in the lowest and most despicable condition; a
   castaway. [Obs.]
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         Shall these abjects, these victims, these outcasts,
         know any thing of pleasure?              --I. Taylor.
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abject \ab"ject\ ([a^]b"j[e^]kt), a. [L. abjectus, p. p. of
   abjicere to throw away; ab + jacere to throw. See {Jet} a
   shooting forth.]
   1. Cast down; low-lying. [Obs.]
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            From the safe shore their floating carcasses
            And broken chariot wheels; so thick bestrown
            Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood.
                                                  --Milton.
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   2. Degraded; servile; groveling; despicable; as, abject
      posture, fortune, thoughts. "Base and abject flatterers."
      --Addison. "An abject liar." --Macaulay.
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            And banish hence these abject, lowly dreams. --Shak.
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   3. Sunk to a low condition; down in spirit or hope;
      miserable; -- of persons.
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   4. Humiliating; degrading; wretched; -- of situations; as,
      abject poverty.
      [PJC]

   Syn: Mean; groveling; cringing; mean-spirited; slavish;
        ignoble; worthless; vile; beggarly; contemptible;
        degraded.
        [1913 Webster]
    

122 Moby Thesaurus words for "abject":
      abominable, accepting, acquiescent, agreeable, apologetic, arrant,
      assenting, atrocious, backscratching, base, beggarly, bootlicking,
      cheesy, complaisant, compliable, compliant, complying, consenting,
      contemptible, contrite, cowering, crawling, cringing, crouching,
      crummy, debased, degraded, depraved, despicable, dirty, disgusting,
      execrable, fawning, flagrant, flattering, footlicking, foul,
      fulsome, grave, gross, groveling, hangdog, heinous, humble,
      humble-minded, humble-spirited, humbled, humblehearted,
      ingratiating, little, low, low-down, lumpen, mangy, mealymouthed,
      mean, measly, meek, meek-minded, meek-spirited, meekhearted,
      melted, miserable, monstrous, nefarious, nondissenting,
      nonresistant, nonresisting, nonresistive, obedient, obeisant,
      obnoxious, obsequious, odious, on bended knee, paltry, parasitic,
      passive, penitent, penitential, penitentiary, petty, poky, poor,
      poor in spirit, prostrate, rank, repentant, reptilian, resigned,
      scabby, scrubby, scruffy, scummy, scurvy, servile, shabby,
      sheepish, shoddy, small, sniveling, softened, sponging, squalid,
      submissive, subservient, supine, sycophantic, timeserving,
      toadeating, toadying, toadyish, touched, truckling, unassertive,
      uncomplaining, underfoot, unmentionable, unresistant, unresisting,
      vile, wretched