exinanition

E1X8I1N1A1N1I1T1I1O1N1
/ˌɛɡzɪnəˈnɪʃən/

noun

An emptying; an evacuation; an enfeebling; exhaustion; humiliation.

Scrabble 18

Meanings

nounexinanition (plural exinanitions)

plural exinanitions

  1. An emptying; an evacuation; an enfeebling; exhaustion; humiliation.

    Fastings to the exinanition of spirits

    1678, Antiquitates Christianæ: Or, the History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus: […], London: […] E. Flesher, and R. Norton, for R[ichard] Royston, […], →OCLC
    2 more examples

    Christ Loved his Brethren and Sisters according to the Humanity, and washed his Disciples' Feet, and Loved them even to the deepest Exinanition [emptying], and gave his Life into the Wrath's Property even to Death for them

    1650s, Jakob Böhme, translated by John Ellistone, The Signature of All Things [Signaturum Rerum]

    c. 1685-1686, Charles Cotton, the Essays of M. de Montaigne In my country, and in my time, learning improves fortunes enough, but not minds; if it meet with those that are dull and heavy, it overcharges and suffocates them, leaving them a crude and undigested mass; if airy and fine, it purifies, clarifies, and subtilises them, even to exinanition. 'Tis a thing of almost indifferent quality; a very useful accession to a well-born soul, but hurtful and pernicious to others}}

  2. broadlyobsoleterareprivation; loss; destitution

Origin

  1. Latinexinānitiō
  2. Englishexinanition

From Latin exinānitiō, from exināniō, from ex- (“out”) and ināniō (“to empty”).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

exinanition. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exinanition

MLA

“exinanition.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exinanition. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “exinanition,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/exinanition.

Source: exinanition on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.