Definition of "abstain"

abstain

/əbˈsteɪn/

verb
third-person singular simple present abstains, present participle abstaining, simple past and past participle abstained
1. (transitive, reflexive, obsolete) Keep or withhold oneself.
2. (intransitive) Refrain from (something or doing something); keep from doing, especially an indulgence.
  Quotations
  The Security Council […] calls upon all Governments and authorities, without prejudice to the rights, claims or positions of the parties concerned, to abstain from any hostile military action in Palestine and to that end to issue a cease-fire order to their military and paramilitary forces
  22 May 1948, United Nations, Security Council Resolution 49
  Who abstains from meat that is not gaunt?
  1597, Shakespeare, Richard II, II-i
3. (intransitive, obsolete) Fast (not eat for a period).
4. (intransitive) Deliberately refrain from casting one's vote at a meeting where one is present.
  Quotations
  […] forcing a small portion of the population to abstain from voting
  1913, Thomas Babington Macaulay, A Short History of English Liberalism
5. (transitive, obsolete) Hinder; keep back; withhold.
  Quotations
  Whether he abstain men from marying [sic].
  1645, John Milton, Tetrachordon: Expositions on the four chief places in Scripture