Search the Dictionary

That which abridges or cuts short; hence, an entertainment that makes the time pass quickly. [Obs.] What abridgment have you for this evening What mask What music Shak.

Hence: In a state to be diffused or propagated; afoot; astir. "Mischiefs that I set abroach." Shak.

ed 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.

ind. "Reflecting on the little absences and distractions of mankind." Addison. To conquer that abstraction which is called absence. Landor.

ce, post, or duty; especially, a landholder who lives in another country or district than that where his estate is situated; as, an Irish absentee. Macaulay.

as, the case absolute. See Ablative absolute, under Ablative. Absolute curvature (Geom.), that curvature of a curve of double curvature, which is measured in the osculating plane of the curve. -- Absolute equation (Astron.), the sum of the optic and eccentric equations. -- Absolute space (Physics), space considered w…

One who believes that it is possible to realize a cognition or concept of the absolute. Sir. W. Hamilton.

That may be absolved.

One who, or that which, absorbs.

ppetites; -- with from. Not a few abstained from voting. Macaulay. Who abstains from meat that is not gaunt Shak.

cating beverages, -- called also total abstinence. The abstinence from a present pleasure that offers itself is a pain, nay, oftentimes, a very great one. Locke.

That which comprises or concentrates in itself the essential qualities of a larger thing or of several things. Specifically: A summary or an epitome, as of a treatise or book, or of a statement; a brief. An abstract of every treatise he had read. Watts. Man, the abstract Of all perfection, which the workmanship Of Heav…

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

That which is absurd; an absurd action; a logical contradiction. His travels were full of absurdities. Johnson.

That may be abused.

That on or against which a body abuts or presses; as

One who, or that which, abuts. Specifically, the owner of a contiguous estate; as, the abutters on a street or a river.

To endure; to abide. [Obs.] But nought that wanteth rest can long aby. Spenser.

abyss; bottomless; unending; profound. Geology gives one the same abysmal extent of time that astronomy does of space. Carlyle.

Incomprehensibility of things; the doctrine held by the ancient Skeptic philosophers, that human knowledge never amounts to certainty, but only to probability.