English

Adjective

alienate ‎(not comparable)

1. Estranged; withdrawn in affection; foreign; with from.

   O alienate from God. John Milton. Paradise Lost line 4643.

Noun

alienate ‎(plural alienates)

1. (obsolete) A stranger; an alien.

Verb

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; to wean.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Thomas Babington Macaulay:

     The errors which […] alienated a loyal gentry and priesthood from the House of Stuart.

   • (Can we date this quote?) Isaac Taylor:

     The recollection of his former life is a dream that only the more alienates him from the realities of the present.

Usage notes

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

• (estrange): estrange, antagonize, isolate

Translations

References

• alienate in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

Italian

Adjective

alienate f pl

1. feminine plural of alienato

Noun

alienate f

1. plural of alienata

Verb

alienate

1. second-person plural present of alienare
2. second-person plural imperative of alienare
3. feminine plural past participle of alienare

Anagrams

• aneliate

Latin

Verb

aliēnāte

1. first-person plural present active imperative of aliēnō