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, or the state of being abridged; diminution; lessening; reduction or deprivation; as, an abridgment of pleasures or of expenses.

An abridgment. [Obs.] Elyot.

The result of abbreviating; an abridgment. Tylor.

An abridgment; a compendium or abstract. This is an excellent abbreviature of the whole duty of a Christian. Jer. Taylor.

An abridgment; a compend; an epitome; a brief account or summary. A book entitled the abridgment or breviary of those roots that are to be cut up or gathered. Holland.

An abridgment or concise statement of a client's case, made out for the instruction of counsel in a trial at law. This word is applied also to a statement of the heads or points of a law argument. It was not without some reference to it that I perused many a brief. Sir J. Stephen.

on, containing the principal heads, or general principles, of a larger work or system; an abridgment; an epitome; a compend; a condensed summary. A short system or compendium of a sience. I. Watts.

as, aliment, that which nourishes, ornament, increment; fragment, piece broken, segment; abridgment, act of abridging, imprisonment, movement, adjournment; amazement, state of being amazed, astonishment.

The digest, or abridgment, in fifty books, of the decisions, writings, and opinions of the old Roman jurists, made in the sixth century by direction of the emperor Justinian, and forming the leading compilation of the Roman civil law. Kent.

A summing up; a condensed statement; an abridgment or brief recapitulation. The exellent little résumé thereof in Dr. Landsborough's book. C. Kingsley.

hered soon and fledge They summed their pens [wings]. Milton. Summing up, a compendium or abridgment; a recapitulation; a résumé; a summary.

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

One who sums up; one who forms an abridgment or summary. Sir E. Dering.

Limitation; abridgment. Burrill. Estate in tail, a limited, abridged, or reduced fee; an estate limited to certain heirs, and from which the other heirs are precluded; -- called also estate tail. Blackstone.