Search the Dictionary

A group including the greater part of fresh-water fishes, and many marine ones, having the ventral fins under the abdomen behind the pectorals.

To draw or conduct away; to withdraw; to draw to a different part. [Obs.] If we abduce the eye unto either corner, the object will not duplicate. Sir T. Browne.

To draw away, as a limb or other part, from its ordinary position.

The act of abducing or abducting; a drawing apart; a carrying away. Roget.

A muscle which serves to draw a part out, or form the median line of the body; as, the abductor oculi, which draws the eye outward.

A partial alienation of reason. "Occasional aberrations of intellect." Lingard. Whims, which at first are the aberrations of a single brain, pass with heat into epidemic form. I. Taylor.

A partial evacuation. Mayne.

e. ablative absolute, a construction in Latin, in which a noun in the ablative case has a participle (either expressed or implied), agreeing with it in gender, number, and case, both words forming a clause by themselves and being unconnected, grammatically, with the rest of the sentence; as, Tarquinio regnante, Pythago…

The act of washing or cleansing; specifically, the washing of the body, or some part of it, as a religious rite.

Departure from the ordinary type; irregularity; monstrosity. "An abnormity . . . like a calf born with two heads." Mrs. Whitney.

The act of giving premature birth; particularly, the expulsion of the human fetus prematurely, or before it is capable of sustaining life; miscarriage.

great plenty; to be very prevalent; to be plentiful. The wild boar which abounds in some parts of the continent of Europe. Chambers. Where sin abounded grace did much more abound. Rom. v. 20.

Over or upon different parts of; through or over in various directions; here and there in; to and fro in; throughout. Lampoons . . . were handed about the coffeehouses. Macaulay. Roving still about the world. Milton.

Cited before, in the preceding part of a book or writing.

prepare the mind for the event; sudden; hasty; unceremonious. "The cause of your abrupt departure." Shak.

To depart clandestinely; to steal off and secrete one's self; -- used especially of persons who withdraw to avoid a legal process; as, an absconding debtor. That very homesickness which, in regular armies, drives so many recruits to abscond. Macaulay.

Not existing; lacking; as, the part was rudimental or absent.

To stand apart from; top leave off; to desist. [Obs.] Raleigh.

Viewed apart from modifying influences or without comparison with other objects; actual; real; -- opposed to relative and comparative; as, absolute motion; absolute time or space.

efly with distemper, or water colors, by which the oil is absorbed, and a brilliancy is imparted to the colors.