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In the act of brooding. [Obs.] Abp. Sancroft.

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.

Fugitive concealment; secret retirement; hiding. [R.] Phillips.

A standing aloof. [Obs.]

The act of abstaining; a holding aloof. Jer. Taylor.

terms, those which express abstract ideas, as beauty, whiteness, roundness, without regarding any object in which they exist; or abstract terms are the names of orders, genera or species of things, in which there is a combination of similar qualities. -- Abstract numbers (Math.), numbers used without application to t…

Inattentive to surrounding objects; absent in mind. "An abstracted scholar." Johnson.

erverted; misapplied. I am . . . necessitated to use the word Parliament improperly, according to the abusive acceptation thereof. Fuller.

In breech-loading firearms, the block behind the barrel which receives the pressure due to recoil.

Pertaining to, or resembling, an abyss; bottomless; unending; profound. Geology gives one the same abysmal extent of time that astronomy does of space. Carlyle.

One holding the philosophy of Socrates and Plato; a Platonist. Hume.

her learning; a college or a university. Popularly, a school, or seminary of learning, holding a rank between a college and a common school.

Acadian epoch (Geol.), an epoch at the beginning of the American paleozoic time, and including the oldest American rocks known to be fossiliferous. See Geology. -- Acadian owl (Zoöl.), a small North American owl (Nyctule Acadica); the saw-whet.

A group of Coelenterata, including the Medusæ or jellyfishes, and hydroids; -- so called from the stinging power they possess. Sometimes called sea nettles.

One of a group of arachnids, including the mites and ticks.

A genus including many species of small mites.

The act of acceding.

ny place about three minutes fifty-six seconds of solar time earlier than on the day preceding. -- Acceleration of the planets, the increasing velocity of their motion, in proceeding from the apogee to the perigee of their orbits.

Relating to acceleration; adding to velocity; quickening. Reid.

The expressive emphasis and shading of a passage. J. S. Dwight.