Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

abject

abject (ab"jekt) , adjective

[Latin abjectus, past participle of abjicere to throw away; ab + jacere to throw. See Jet a shooting forth.]

1.
Cast down; low-lying. [Obsolete]
From the safe shore their floating carcasses And broken chariot wheels; so thick bestrown Abject and lost lay these, covering the flood. — Milton
2.
Degraded; servile; groveling; despicable; as, abject posture, fortune, thoughts.
Base and abject flatterers. — Addison
An abject liar. — Macaulay
And banish hence these abject, lowly dreams. — Shakespeare
3.
Sunk to a low condition; down in spirit or hope; miserable; -- of persons.
4.
Humiliating; degrading; wretched; -- of situations; as, abject poverty.

Abject (ab*jekt") , transitive verb

[From Abject, a.]

To cast off or down; hence, to abase; to degrade; to lower; to debase. [Obsolete] — Donne

Abject (ab"jekt) , noun

A person in the lowest and most despicable condition; a castaway. [Obsolete]
Shall these abjects, these victims, these outcasts, know any thing of pleasure? — I. Taylor