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Involution in one's self; hence, abstraction of thought; reverie.

liss of dreams. Milton. A sip is all that the public ever care to take from reservoirs of abstract philosophy. De Quincey.

Hence, absent-mindedness; abstraction.

A general or comprehensive statement; an abridged account; an abstract, abridgment, or compendium, containing the sum or substance of a fuller account.

A compendium containing the heads of a discourse, and the like; an abstract.

An abstract or compendium of faith or doctrine; a creed, or a summary of the articles of religion.

a collection of heads or parts so arranged as to exhibit a general view of the whole; an abstract or summary of a discourse; a syllabus; a conspectus. That the reader may see in one view the exactness of the method, as well as force of the argument, I shall here draw up a short synopsis of this epistle. Bp. Warburton.…

An exposition of the general or abstract principles of any science; as, the theory of music.

ove humanity. [R.] Souls purified by sorrow and self-denial, transhumanized to the divine abstraction of pure contemplation. Lowell.

Unyielding in nature; unchangeable; fixed; -- applied to abstract ideas; as, unbending truths.

A single thing, as a magnitude or number, regarded as an undivided whole. Abstract unit, the unit of numeration; one taken in the abstract; the number represented by 1. The term is used in distinction from concrete, or determinate, unit, that is, a unit in which the kind of thing is expressed; a unit of measure or valu…

A general abstract conception, so called from being universally applicable to, or predicable of, each individual or species contained under it.

A species of asceticism among the Hindoos, which consists in a complete abstraction from all worldly objects, by which the votary expects to obtain union with the universal spirit, and to acquire superhuman faculties.