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The form to which a word or phrase is reduced by contraction and omission; a letter or letters, standing for a word or phrase of which they are a part; as, Gen. for Genesis; U.S.A. for United States of America.

The act of abdicating; the renunciation of a high office, dignity, or trust, by its holder; commonly the voluntary renunciation of sovereign power; as, abdication of the throne, government, power, authority.

The wrongful, and usually the forcible, carrying off of a human being; as, the abduction of a child, the abduction of an heiress.

The act of wandering; deviation, especially from truth or moral rectitude, from the natural state, or from a type. "The aberration of youth." Hall. "Aberrations from theory." Burke.

Characterized by aberration.

A partial evacuation. Mayne.

The supposed origination of living organisms from lifeless matter; such genesis as does not involve the action of living parents; spontaneous generation; -- called also abiogeny, and opposed to biogenesis. I shall call the . . . doctrine that living matter may be produced by not living matter, the hypothesis of abiogen…

Of or pertaining to abiogenesis. Ab`i*o*ge*net"ic*al*ly, adv.

One who believes that life can be produced independently of antecedent. Huxley.

Produced by spontaneous generation.

Same as Abiogenesis.

Pertaining to the study of inanimate things.

A pathological condition opposite to that of irritation; debility; want of strength; asthenia.

The act of bringing down or humbling. "The abjection of the king and his realm." Joe.

Rejection by judicial sentence. [R.] Knowles.

The act of abjuring or forswearing; a renunciation upon oath; as, abjuration of the realm, a sworn banishment, an oath taken to leave the country and never to return.

The weaning of a child from the breast, or of young beasts from their dam. Blount.

The act or process of laying bare the roots of trees to expose them to the air and water. [Obs.] Evelyn.

Extirpation. Dunglison.

Diminishing; as, an ablatitious force. Sir J. Herschel.