exinanition Now rare.
(ɛkˌsɪnəˈnɪʃən)
Also 8 exhinanition.
[ad. L. exinānītiōn-em, n. of action f. exinānīre: see exinanite.]
1. The action or process of emptying or exhausting, whether in a material or immaterial sense; emptied or exhausted condition.
| 1603 Florio Montaigne iii. viii. (1632) 522 It [learning] doth..purifie..and subtilize them [minds] even unto exinanition or evacuation. a 1631 Donne Ess. (1651) 118 Replenishing the World after the great Exinanition by the generall Deluge. 1633 Earl of Manchester Al Mondo (1636) 201 Some..cared not to afford common assistance to nature, and so have dyed through exinanition and want of strength. 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. i. 6 A life whose stories tell of..fastings to the exinanition of spirits. 1720 Gibson Diet. Horses v. (ed. 3) 81 Whether the signs be Repletion and fulness, or Exhinanition and Lowness of his Flesh. 1819 Coleridge in Athenæum 7 Jan. 1888, 17/3 Dante..asks for an evacuation and exinanition of Marsyas, that so he [Dante] might become a mere vessel..of the Deity. 1862 A. H. Clough in Macm. Mag. Aug. 323 Life at very birth destroyed, Atrophy, exinanition! 1884 Syd. Soc. Lex., Exinanition, a thorough and complete emptying. |
2. The action or process of emptying of pride, self-will, or dignity; abasement, humiliation; an instance of this; also, a state of humiliation.
| 1627 Donne Serm. v. 45 This exinanition of ourselves is acceptable in the sight of God. 1649 Jer. Taylor Gt. Exemp. iii. xv. 129 He was to take upon him all the affronts, miseries and exinanitions of the most miserable. 1652 Benlowes Theoph. iv. lviii, I'l press still Th' Exinanition of my o'regrown will. 1686 H. More in Norris Theory Love (1688) 187 The scope they aym at..is a perfect exinanition of ourselves, that we may be filled with the sense of God. |
b. esp. of Christ; with reference to Phil. ii. 8.
| a 1612 Donne βιαθανατος (1644) 188 Christ said this now, because his Passion was begun; for all his conversations here were degrees of exinanition. 1659 Pearson Creed. I. 200 His exinanition consisted in..the assumption of the form of a servant. 1855 W. H. Mill Applic. Panth. Princ. (1861) 26 The death of the God-man is only the throwing off of his exinanition or humiliation. 1882–3 Schaff Encycl. Relig. Knowl. I. 463 [The Kenotic theory] teaches a temporary self-exinanition..of the pre-existent Logos. |