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Without a certain confine; outside the house; away from one's abode; as, to walk abroad. I went to St. James', where another was preaching in the court abroad. Evelyn.

Without notice to 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.

To take or withdraw (one's self) to such a distance as to prevent intercourse; -- used with the reflexive pronoun. If after due summons any member absents himself, he is to be fined. Addison.

The condition of being poisoned by the excessive use of absinth.

The common wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), an intensely bitter plant, used as a tonic and for making the oil of wormwood.

An acquittal, or sentence of a judge declaring and accused person innocent. [Obs.]

To swallow up; to engulf; to overwhelm; to cause to disappear as if by swallowing up; to use up; to include. "Dark oblivion soon absorbs them all." Cowper. The large cities absorb the wealth and fashion. W. Irving.

. Etym: [L., without this.] (Law) The technical words of denial used in traversing what has been alleged, and is repeated.

One who abstains; esp., one who abstains from the use of intoxicating liquors.

Sparing in diet; refraining from a free use of food and strong drinks; temperate; abstinent; sparing in the indulgence of the appetite or passions. Instances of longevity are chiefly among the abstemious. Arbuthnot.

The quality of being abstemious, temperate, or sparing in the use of food and strong drinks. It expresses a greater degree of abstinence than temperance.

A substance used in cleansing; a detergent; as, soap is an abstergent.

atter; exiting in the mind only; as, abstract truth, abstract numbers. Hence: ideal; abstruse; difficult.

Abstract; abstruse; difficult. [Obs.] Johnson.

A separation from worldly objects; a recluse life; as, a hermit's abstraction.

Abstruseness; that which is abstruse. [R.] Sir T. Browne.

pious supply; superfluity; wealth: -- strictly applicable to quantity only, but sometimes used of number. It is lamentable to remember what abundance of noble blood hath been shed with small benefit to the Christian state. Raleigh.

That may be abused.

Abuse. [Obs.] Whately (1634).