Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

ab·stract       (āb-strākt', āb'strākt')  Pronunciation Key  adj.   Considered apart from concrete existence: an abstract concept. Not applied or practical; theoretical. See Synonyms at theoretical. Difficult to understand; abstruse: abstract philosophical problems. Thought of or stated without reference to a specific instance: abstract words like truth and justice. Impersonal, as in attitude or views. 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') A statement summarizing the important points of a text. Something abstract. tr.v.   (āb-strākt') ab·stract·ed, ab·stract·ing, ab·stracts To take away; remove. To remove without permission; filch. To consider (a quality, for example) without reference to a particular example or object. (āb'strākt') To summarize; epitomize. 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.

Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
abstract 

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

abstract
adjective
1.	existing only in the mind; separated from embodiment; "abstract words like 'truth' and 'justice'" [ant: concrete]
2.	not representing or imitating external reality or the objects of nature; "a large abstract painting"
3.	dealing with a subject in the abstract without practical purpose or intention; "abstract reasoning"; "abstract science"
noun
1.	a concept or idea not associated with any specific instance; "he loved her only in the abstract--not in person" [syn: abstraction]
2.	a sketchy summary of the main points of an argument or theory [syn: outline]
verb
1.	consider a concept without thinking of a specific example; consider abstractly or theoretically
2.	make off with belongings of others
3.	consider apart from a particular case or instance; "Let's abstract away from this particular example"
4.	give an abstract (of)

American Heritage Stedman's Medical Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

abstract ab·stract (āb-strākt', āb'strākt')
adj.

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

Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Law - Cite This Source - Share This
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

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Abstract

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

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

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

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.