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The state of being absolute; the system or doctrine of the absolute; the principles or practice of absolute or arbitrary government; despotism. The element of absolutism and prelacy was controlling. Palfrey.

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

That may be absolved.

To set free, or release, as from some obligation, 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. Halifa…

e 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.

The state or quality of being absorbable. Graham (Chemistry).

lowing; absorptive. Absorbent ground (Paint.), a ground prepared for a picture, chiefly with distemper, or water colors, by which the oil is absorbed, and a brilliancy is imparted to the colors.

One who, or that which, absorbs.

The act or process of absorbing or sucking in anything, or of being absorbed and made to disappear; as, the absorption of bodies in a whirlpool, the absorption of a smaller tribe into a larger.

The quality of being absorptive; absorptive power.

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

one's self aloof; to forbear or refrain voluntarily, and especially from an indulgence of the passions or appetites; -- with from. Not a few abstained from voting. Macaulay. Who abstains from meat that is not gaunt Shak.

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

Abstaining from wine. [Orig. Latin sense.] Under his special eye Abstemious I grew up and thrived amain. Milton.

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.

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

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

Something cleansing. The strong abstersive of some heroic magistrate. Milton.

The quality of being abstersive. Fuller.

The act or practice of abstaining; voluntary forbearance of any action, especially the refraining from an indulgence of appetite, or from customary gratifications of animal or sensual propensities. Specifically, the practice of abstaining from intoxicating beverages, -- called also total abstinence. The abstinence from…