Adjacent Words

Privation definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

PRIVA'TION, n. [L. privatio, from privo. See Private.]
1. The state of being deprived; particularly, deprivation or absence of what is necessary for comfort. He endures his privations with wonderful fortitude.
2. The act of removing something possessed; the removal or destruction of any thing or quality. The garrison was compelled by privation to surrender.
For what is this contagious sin of kind
But a privation of that grace within?
3. Absence, in general. Darkness is a privation of light.
4. The act of the mind in separating a thing from something appendant.
5. The act of degrading from rank or office.
[But in this sense, deprivation is now used. See Deprivation.]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: a state of extreme poverty [syn: privation, want, deprivation, neediness]
2: act of depriving someone of food or money or rights; "nutritional privation"; "deprivation of civil rights" [syn: privation, deprivation]

Merriam Webster's

noun Etymology: Middle English privacion, from Anglo-French, from Latin privation-, privatio, from privare to deprive Date: 14th century 1. an act or instance of depriving ; deprivation 2. the state of being deprived; especially lack of what is needed for existence

Oxford Reference Dictionary

n. 1 lack of the comforts or necessities of life (suffered many privations). 2 (often foll. by of) loss or absence (of a quality). Etymology: ME f. L privatio (as PRIVATE)

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Privation Pri*va"tion, n. [L. privatio: cf. F. privation. See Private.] 1. The act of depriving, or taking away; hence, the depriving of rank or office; degradation in rank; deprivation. --Bacon. 2. The state of being deprived or destitute of something, especially of something required or desired; destitution; need; as, to undergo severe privations. 3. The condition of being absent; absence; negation. Evil will be known by consequence, as being only a privation, or absence, of good. --South. Privation mere of light and absent day. --Milton.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(privations) If you suffer privation or privations, you have to live without many of the things that are thought to be necessary in life, such as food, clothing, or comfort. (FORMAL) They endured five years of privation during the second world war... The privations of monastery life were evident in his appearance. = hardship N-UNCOUNT: also N in pl

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Deprivation, loss, bereavement. 2. Destitution, want, need, necessity, distress. 3. Absence, negation. 4. Degradation.

Moby Thesaurus

abridgment, bare cupboard, bare subsistence, beggarliness, beggary, bereavement, cost, curtailment, damage, dead loss, dearth, debit, default, defect, denial, denudation, deprivation, deprivement, despoilment, destitution, destruction, detriment, disburdening, disburdenment, disentitlement, dispossession, distress, divestment, empty purse, expense, forfeit, forfeiture, grinding poverty, gripe, hand-to-mouth existence, hardship, homelessness, impecuniousness, impoverishment, indigence, injury, lack, loser, losing, losing streak, loss, mendicancy, misery, mislaying, misplacement, misplacing, miss, moneylessness, necessitousness, necessity, need, neediness, pauperism, pauperization, penury, perdition, pinch, poorness, poverty, relieving, robbery, ruin, sacrifice, spoliation, straits, stripping, suffering, taking away, total loss, want