[f. ABSTAIN + -ING1.] The act or practice of keeping oneself, or refraining, from anything. (Now mostly gerundial, the sb. being supplied by ABSTINENCE.)
c. 1440. Gesta Rom. (1879), 423. This wille of abstenyng from synne ledithe here to heuyn.
1660. R. Coke, Elem. Power & Subj., 133. It is not alwaies the doing, or abstaining from what is commanded or forbidden, which is virtue, but only the ingenuous and upright doing or abstaining.
1744. Harris, Three Treat. (1841), 86. It prescribes no abstainings, no forbearances out of nature.
1850. Clough, Dipsychus, II. ii. 74. But for perfection attaining is one method only, abstaining.
