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Abstract - 11 dictionary results

ab⋅stract

  [adj. ab-strakt, ab-strakt; n. ab-strakt; v. ab-strakt for 10–13, ab-strakt for 14]
Use Abstract in a Sentence
–adjective
1. thought of apart from concrete realities, specific objects, or actual instances: an abstract idea.
2. expressing a quality or characteristic apart from any specific object or instance, as justice, poverty, and speed.
3. theoretical; not applied or practical: abstract science.
4. difficult to understand; abstruse: abstract speculations.
5. Fine Arts.
a. of or pertaining to the formal aspect of art, emphasizing lines, colors, generalized or geometrical forms, etc., esp. with reference to their relationship to one another.
b. (often initial capital letter) pertaining to the nonrepresentational art styles of the 20th century.
–noun
6. a summary of a text, scientific article, document, speech, etc.; epitome.
7. something that concentrates in itself the essential qualities of anything more extensive or more general, or of several things; essence.
8. an idea or term considered apart from some material basis or object.
9. an abstract work of art.
–verb (used with object)
10. to draw or take away; remove.
11. to divert or draw away the attention of.
12. to steal.
13. to consider as a general quality or characteristic apart from specific objects or instances: to abstract the notions of time, space, and matter.
14. to make an abstract of; summarize.
—Idioms
15. abstract away from, to omit from consideration.
16. in the abstract, without reference to a specific object or instance; in theory: beauty in the abstract.
Origin:
1400–50; late ME: withdrawn from worldly interests < L abstractus drawn off (ptp. of abstrahere). See abs-, tract 1

Related forms:
ab⋅stract⋅er, noun
ab⋅stract⋅ly, adverb
ab⋅stract⋅ness, noun
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ab·stract   (āb-strākt', āb'strākt')   
adj.  
  1. Considered apart from concrete existence: an abstract concept.
  2. Not applied or practical; theoretical. See Synonyms at theoretical.
  3. Difficult to understand; abstruse: abstract philosophical problems.
  4. Thought of or stated without reference to a specific instance: abstract words like truth and justice.
  5. Impersonal, as in attitude or views.
  6. Having an intellectual and affective artistic content that depends solely on intrinsic form rather than on narrative content or pictorial representation: abstract painting and sculpture.
n.   (āb'strākt')
  1. A statement summarizing the important points of a text.
  2. Something abstract.
tr.v.   (āb-strākt') ab·stract·ed, ab·stract·ing, ab·stracts
  1. To take away; remove.
  2. To remove without permission; filch.
  3. To consider (a quality, for example) without reference to a particular example or object.
  4. (āb'strākt') To summarize; epitomize.
  5. To create artistic abstractions of (something else, such as a concrete object or another style): "The Bauhaus Functionalists were . . . busy unornamenting and abstracting modern architecture, painting and design" (John Barth).

[Middle English, from Latin abstractus, past participle of abstrahere, to draw away : abs-, ab-, away; see ab-1 + trahere, to draw.]
ab·stract'er n., ab·stract'ly adv., ab·stract'ness n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Abstract

Ab"stract`\ (#; 277), a. [L. abstractus, p. p. of abstrahere to draw from, separate; ab, abs + trahere to draw. See Trace.]

1. Withdraw; separate. [Obs.]

The more abstract . . . we are from the body. --Norris.

2. Considered apart from any application to a particular object; separated from matter; existing in the mind only; as, abstract truth, abstract numbers. Hence: ideal; abstruse; difficult.

3. (Logic) (a) Expressing a particular property of an object viewed apart from the other properties which constitute it; -- opposed to concrete; as, honesty is an abstract word. --J. S. Mill. (b) Resulting from the mental faculty of abstraction; general as opposed to particular; as, "reptile" is an abstract or general name. --Locke.

A concrete name is a name which stands for a thing; an abstract name which stands for an attribute of a thing. A practice has grown up in more modern times, which, if not introduced by Locke, has gained currency from his example, of applying the expression "abstract name" to all names which are the result of abstraction and generalization, and consequently to all general names, instead of confining it to the names of attributes. --J. S. Mill.

4. Abstracted; absent in mind. "Abstract, as in a trance." --Milton.

An abstract idea (Metaph.), an idea separated from a complex object, or from other ideas which naturally accompany it; as the solidity of marble when contemplated apart from its color or figure.

Abstract terms, those which express abstract ideas, as beauty, whiteness, roundness, without regarding any object in which they exist; or abstract terms are the names of orders, genera or species of things, in which there is a combination of similar qualities.

Abstract numbers (Math.), numbers used without application to things, as 6, 8, 10; but when applied to any thing, as 6 feet, 10 men, they become concrete.

Abstract or Pure mathematics. See Mathematics.

Abstract

Ab*stract"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Abstracted; p. pr. & vb. n. Abstracting.] [See Abstract, a.]

1. To withdraw; to separate; to take away.

He was incapable of forming any opinion or resolution abstracted from his own prejudices. --Sir W. Scott.

2. To draw off in respect to interest or attention; as, his was wholly abstracted by other objects.

The young stranger had been abstracted and silent. --Blackw. Mag.

3. To separate, as ideas, by the operation of the mind; to consider by itself; to contemplate separately, as a quality or attribute. --Whately.

4. To epitomize; to abridge. --Franklin.

5. To take secretly or dishonestly; to purloin; as, to abstract goods from a parcel, or money from a till.

Von Rosen had quietly abstracted the bearing-reins from the harness. --W. Black.

6. (Chem.) To separate, as the more volatile or soluble parts of a substance, by distillation or other chemical processes. In this sense extract is now more generally used.

Abstract

Ab*stract"\, v. t. To perform the process of abstraction. [R.]

I own myself able to abstract in one sense. --Berkeley.

Abstract

Ab"stract`\, n. [See Abstract, a.]

1. 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 Heaven hath modeled. --Ford.

2. A state of separation from other things; as, to consider a subject in the abstract, or apart from other associated things.

3. An abstract term.

The concretes "father" and "son" have, or might have, the abstracts "paternity" and "filiety." --J. S. Mill.

4. (Med.) A powdered solid extract of a vegetable substance mixed with sugar of milk in such proportion that one part of the abstract represents two parts of the original substance.

Abstract of title (Law), an epitome of the evidences of ownership.

Syn: Abridgment; compendium; epitome; synopsis. See Abridgment.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : Abstract
Spanish: abstracto,
German: abstrakt,
Japanese: 抽象的な
More Translations »

abstract 
1387, from L. abstractus "drawn away," pp. of abstrahere, from ab(s)- "away" + trahere "draw" (see tract (1)). Meaning "withdrawn or separated from material objects or practical matters" is from 1557; specifically in ref. to the arts, it dates from 1915; abstract expressionism from 1952. Meaning "summary of a document" is from 1528. The verb is first recorded 1542.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: ab·stract
Pronunciation: 'ab-"strakt
Function: noun
1 : a summary of a legal document
2 : ABSTRACT OF TITLE —ab·stract /ab-'strakt, 'ab-"strakt/ transitive verb
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law, © 1996 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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Main Entry: 1ab·stract
Pronunciation: 'ab-"strakt
Function: noun
1 : a written summary of the key points especially of a scientificpaper
2 : a pharmaceutical preparation made by mixing a powdered solid extract of a vegetable substance with lactose in such proportions that one part of the final productrepresents two parts of the original drug from which the extract was made

Main Entry: 2ab·stract
Pronunciation: 'ab-"strakt, ab-'
Function: transitive verb
: to make an abstract of —ab·strac·tor or ab·stract·er /-t&r/ noun
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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abstract ab·stract (āb-strākt', āb'strākt')
adj.

  1. Considered apart from concrete existence.
  2. Not applied or practical; theoretical.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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