Abstract
['æbstrækt]
Definition
(verb.) consider a concept without thinking of a specific example; consider abstractly or theoretically.
(verb.) consider apart from a particular case or instance; 'Let's abstract away from this particular example'.
(verb.) give an abstract (of).
(adj.) existing only in the mind; separated from embodiment; 'abstract words like `truth' and `justice'' .
(adj.) dealing with a subject in the abstract without practical purpose or intention; 'abstract reasoning'; 'abstract science' .
(adj.) not representing or imitating external reality or the objects of nature; 'a large abstract painting' .
Edited by Josie--From WordNet
Definition
(a.) Withdraw; separate.
(a.) Considered apart from any application to a particular object; separated from matter; existing in the mind only; as, abstract truth, abstract numbers. Hence: ideal; abstruse; difficult.
(a.) Expressing a particular property of an object viewed apart from the other properties which constitute it; -- opposed to concrete; as, honesty is an abstract word.
(a.) Resulting from the mental faculty of abstraction; general as opposed to particular; as, "reptile" is an abstract or general name.
(a.) Abstracted; absent in mind.
(a.) To withdraw; to separate; to take away.
(a.) To draw off in respect to interest or attention; as, his was wholly abstracted by other objects.
(a.) To separate, as ideas, by the operation of the mind; to consider by itself; to contemplate separately, as a quality or attribute.
(a.) To epitomize; to abridge.
(a.) To take secretly or dishonestly; to purloin; as, to abstract goods from a parcel, or money from a till.
(a.) To separate, as the more volatile or soluble parts of a substance, by distillation or other chemical processes. In this sense extract is now more generally used.
(v. t.) To perform the process of abstraction.
(a.) That which comprises or concentrates in itself the essential qualities of a larger thing or of several things. Specifically: A summary or an epitome, as of a treatise or book, or of a statement; a brief.
(a.) A state of separation from other things; as, to consider a subject in the abstract, or apart from other associated things.
(a.) An abstract term.
(a.) A powdered solid extract of a vegetable substance mixed with sugar of milk in such proportion that one part of the abstract represents two parts of the original substance.
Checked by Darren
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Separate, disunite, disjoin, dissociate, isolate, detach, disengage.[2]. Take, seize, appropriate, steal, purloin.[3]. Abridge, abbreviate, epitomize, make an abstract of.
a. [1]. Separate, isolated, not concrete.[2]. Occult, recondite, subtile, refined, abstracted, ABSTRUSE.
n. Abridgment, epitome, summary, conspectus, compend, compendium, synopsis, syllabus, outline, digest, brief, breviary, sum and substance, concise statement.
Inputed by Delia
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Separate, detach, part, eliminate, draw_away, remove, take_away, appropriate,purloin, steal, thieve, draw_from
ANT:Add, unite, conjoin, adduce, impose, restore, surrender, return, Abstract \n.\,[See ABRIDGMENT]
Typist: Shelley
Definition
adj. general as opposed to particular or individual (the opposite of abstract is concrete—a red colour is an abstract notion a red rose is a concrete notion; an abstract noun is the name of a quality apart from the thing as redness).—n. summary: abridgment: essence.
v.t. to draw away: to separate: to purloin.—adj. Abstract′ed drawn off (with from): removed: absent in mind.—adv. Abstract′edly.—ns. Abstract′edness; Abstrac′tion act of abstracting: state of being abstracted: absence of mind: the operation of the mind by which certain qualities or attributes of an object are considered apart from the rest: a purloining.—adj. Abstract′ive having the power of abstracting.—n. anything abstractive: an abstract.—adv. Abs′tractly.—n. Abs′tractness.
Typist: Wolfgang
Examples
- We see again here, as in the case of Thales, th at the love of abstract thought, the pursuit of science as science, did not interfere with ultimate practical applications. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- We endeavoured in vain to abstract Clara from this deplorable scene. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- We picture political institutions as mechanically constructed contrivances within which the nation's life is contained and compelled to approximate some abstract idea of justice or liberty. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- But general also means abstract, or detached from all specific context. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Truthful we both were; he from pride and courage, I from a sort of abstract ideality. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- Names give abstract meanings a physical locus and body. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- His face was incandescent in its abstract earnestness. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- John Rokesmith read his abstracts aloud. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- It is due to rapid evaporation, which in changing the water from a liquid to a gaseous form, abstracts heat from the hands. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- My Lady carelessly and scornfully abstracts her attention. Charles Dickens. Bleak House.
- That didn't answer very well; and then I began to state cases for them, and make abstracts, and that sort of work. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- They say, when he was a little boy, he made an abstract of 'Hop o' my Thumb,' and he has been making abstracts ever since. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- Mr. Weller was in a very abstracted and contemplative mood. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- Mr. Hale sipped his tea in abstracted silence; Margaret had the responses all to herself. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
- He saw vividly with his spirit the grey, forward-stretching face of the negro woman, African and tense, abstracted in utter physical stress. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- That he laid his other hand upon the Doctor's arm, causing him to look up with an abstracted air. Charles Dickens. David Copperfield.
- In the same way, not the smallest morsel of property belonging to the proprietors of the house had been abstracted. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- He was not in general a lady's man, though all ladies liked him; something of a book-worm he was, near-sighted, spectacled, now and then abstracted. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- What are you thinking of to make you look so abstracted? Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
Typed by Leona