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Swallowing, engrossing; as, an absorbing pursuit. -- Ab*sorb"ing, adv.

Absorbing; swallowing; 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.

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.

Uncolored; not absorbing color from a fluid; -- said of tissue. Achromatic lens (Opt.), a lens composed usually of two separate lenses, a convex and concave, of substances having different refractive and dispersive powers, as crown and flint glass, with the curvatures so adjusted that the chromatic aberration produced…

One who, or that which blots; esp. a device for absorbing superfluous ink.

contracts, will, etc.; legal power or right; competency. Capacity for heat, the power of absorbing heat. Substances differ in the amount of heat requisite to raise them a given number of thermometric degrees, and this difference is the measure of, or depends upon, whzt is called their capacity for heat. See Specific h…

To dissolve gradually and become liquid by attracting and absorbing moisture from the air, as certain salts, acids, and alkalies. In very moist air crystals of strontites deliquesce. Black.

To melt and become liquid by absorbing water from the air; to deliquesce. Fourcroy.

A mood of any kind which masters or possesses one for a time; a temporary, absorbing affection; a paroxysm; as, a fit melancholy, of passion, or of laughter. All fits of pleasure we balanced by an equal degree of pain. Swift. The English, however, were on this subject prone to fits of jealously. Macaulay.…

Any substance supposed to be capable of absorbing, retaining, and transporting contagious or infectious germs; as, woolen clothes are said to be active fomites.

Readily absorbing and retaining moisture; as, hygrometric substances, like potash.

The property possessed by vegetable tissues of absorbing or discharging moisture according to circumstances.

The act or process of imbibing, or absorbing; as, the post- mortem imbibition of poisons. Bacon.

by a fibrous network, serving to cover or line some part or organ, and often secreting or absorbing certain fluids.

Contemplation which abstracts the mind from passing scenes; absorbing thought; hence, absence of mind; a brown study. Milton.

pening; imperforation. Dunglison. Occlusion of gases (Chem. & Physics), the phenomenon of absorbing gases, as exhibited by platinum, palladium, iron, or charcoal; thus, palladium absorbs, or occludes, nearly a thousand times its own volume of hydrogen, and in this case a chemical compound seems to be formed.…

The act of resorbing; also, the act of absorbing again; reabsorption.

. Absorption spectrum, the spectrum of light which has passed through a medium capable of absorbing a portion of the rays. It is characterized by dark spaces, bands, or lines. -- Chemical spectrum, a spectrum of rays considered solely with reference to their chemical effects, as in photography. These, in the usual pho…

A supposed spongelike expansion of the tip of a rootlet for absorbing water; -- called also spongelet.

Capable of absorbing or dissolving to a greater degree; as, an unsaturated solution.