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An adjective suffix now usually in a passive sense; able to be; fit to be; expressing capacity or worthiness in a passive sense; as, movable, able to be moved; amendable, able to be amended; blamable, fit to be blamed; salable.

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

Worthy of, or causing, abhorrence, as a thing of evil omen; odious in the utmost degree; very hateful; detestable; loathsome; execrable.

Causing abortion; as, abortive medicines. Parr.

ul. 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.

In concern with; engaged in; intent on. I must be about my Father's business. Luke ii. 49.

Figuratively, higher than; superior to in any respect; surpassing; beyond; higher in measure or degree than; as, things above comprehension; above mean actions; conduct above reproach. "Thy worth . . . is actions above my gifts." Marlowe. I saw in the way a light from heaven above the brightness of the sun. Acts xxxvi.…

A group of annelids, so called because the species composing it have no special organs of respiration.

To shorten or contract by using fewer words, yet retaining the sense; to epitomize; to condense; as, to abridge a history or dictionary.

Inattentive to what is passing; absent-minded; preoccupied; as, an absent air. What is commonly called an absent man is commonly either a very weak or a very affected man. Chesterfield.

An absolving, or setting free from guilt, sin, or penalty; forgiveness of an offense. "Government . . . granting absolution to the nation." Froude.

n, debt, or responsibility, or from the consequences of guilt or such ties as it would be sin or guilt to violate; to pronounce free; as, to absolve a subject from his allegiance; to absolve an offender, which amounts to an acquittal and remission of his punishment. Halifax was absolved by a majority of fourteen. Macau…

Swallowing, engrossing; as, an absorbing pursuit. -- Ab*sorb"ing, adv.

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

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

Act of wiping clean; a cleansing; a purging. The task of ablution and abstersion being performed. Sir W. Scott.

Cleansing; purging. Bacon.

Expressing a particular property of an object viewed apart from the other properties which constitute it; -- opposed to Ant: concrete; as, honesty is an abstract word. J. S. Mill.

The Patriarch, or head of the Abyssinian Church.

[Obs.] Or is it some abuse, and no such thing Shak. Abuse of distress (Law), a wrongful using of an animal or chattel distrained, by the distrainer.