abstinent 
abstinent (ab'sti-nent), fl. and n. [< ME. absti- 
nent, < OF. abstinent, astinent, astenant, < L. 
abstinen(t-)s, ppr. of abstinere, abstain: see ab- 
stain.] I. .. Refraining from undue indul- 
gence, especially in the use of food and drink ; 
characterized by moderation ; abstemious. 
II. . 1. One who abstains or is abstinent; 
an abstainer. 
Very few public men, for instance, care to order a bottle 
of wine at a public table. It is not because they are 
total abstinents. Harper's Mag., LXV. 633. 
2. leap."] One of a sect which appeared in 
France and Spain in the third century. The Ab. 
stinents opposed marriage, condemned the eating of flesh, 
and placed the Holy Spirit in the class of created beings. 
abstinently (ab'sti-nent-li), adv. In an ab- 
stinent manner ; with abstinence. 
abstortedt (ab-stor'ted), p. a. [< L. abs, away, 
+ tvrtus, pp. of torquere, twist : see tort and 
torture."] Forced away. Phillips, 1662. 
abstract (ab-strakf), v. [< L. abstractus, pp. 
of abstrahere, draw away, < abs, away, + tra- 
liere, draw: see track, tract."] I. trans. 1. To 
draw away ; take away ; withdraw or remove, 
whether to hold or to get rid of the object with- 
drawn : as, to abstract one's attention ; to 06- 
stract a watch from a person's pocket, or money 
from a bank. [In the latter use, a euphemism 
for steal or purloin.] 
Thy furniture of radiant dye 
Abstracts and ravishes the curious eye. 
King, Kuflnus, 1. 257. 
Abstract what others feel, what others think, 
All pleasures sicken, and all glories sink. 
Pope, Essay on Man, iv. 45. 
In truth the object and the sensation are the same 
thing, and cannot therefore be abstracted from each other. 
Berkeley, Prin. of Human Knowl. (1710), i. lj 5. 
2. To consider as a form apart from matter ; 
attend to as a general object, to the neglect of 
special circumstances; derive as a general 
idea from the contemplation of particular in- 
stances ; separate and hold in thought, as a part 
of a complex idea, while letting the rest go. 
This meaning of the Latin abstrahere, with the corre- 
sponding meaning of abstractio, first appears toward the 
end of the great dispute between the nominalists and 
realists in the twelfth century. The invention of these 
terms may be said to embody the upshot of the contro- 
versy. They are unquestionably translations of the Greek 
atjxupcip and atfraipfvis, though we cannot say how these 
Greek terms became known in the West so early. The 
earliest passage is the following : " We say those thoughts 
(intellectus) are by abstraction (per abstrattionem), which 
either contemplate the nature of any form in itself with- 
out regard to the subject matter, or think any nature in- 
differently (indi/erenter), apart, that is, from the difference 
of its individuals. ... On the other hand, we may speak 
of subtraction, when any one endeavors to contemplate the 
nature of any subject essence apart from all form. Either 
thought, however, the abstracting as well as the subtract- 
ing, seems to conceive the thing otherwise than it exists." 
De Intellections, in Cousin's Fragments Philosophiques 
(2d ed.), p. 481. This old literature having been long for- 
gotten, an erroneous idea of the origin of the term arose. 
" Abstraction means etymplogically the active withdrawal 
of attention from one thing in order to flx it on another 
thing." Sully. [This plausible but false notion gave rise 
to the phrase to abstract (intrans.)/ro>. See below.] 
3. To derive or obtain the idea of. 
And thus from divers accidents and acts 
Which do within her observation fall 
The goddesses and powers divine abstracts, 
As Nature, Fortune, and the Virtues all. 
Sir J. Da vies. 
4. To select or separate the substance of, as a 
book or writing ; epitomize or reduce to a sum- 
mary. 
The great world in a little world of fancy 
Is here abstracted. 
Ford, Fancies Chaste and Noble, ii. 2. 
Let us abstract them into brief compends. 
Watts, Imp. of Mind. 
5f. To extract : as, to abstract spirit. Soyle. 
= Syn. 2. To disengage, isolate, detach. 4. See abridge. 
II. intrans. To form abstractions ; separate 
ideas; distinguish between the attribute and 
the subject in which it exists : as, " brutes ab- 
stract not," Locke. 
Thus the common consciousness lives in abstraction, 
though it has never abstracted. E. Caird, Hegel, p. 159. 
To abstract from, to withdraw the attention from, as 
part of a complex idea, in order to concentrate it upon 
the rest. 
I noticed the improper use of the term abstraction by 
many philosophers, in applying it to that on which the 
attention is converged. This we may indeed be said to 
prescind, but not to abstract. Thus, let A, B, C be three 
qualities of an object. We prescind A, in abstracting 
.from B and C, but we cannot without impropriety say that 
we abstract A. Hamilton, Lectures on Metaph., xxxv. 
[This is all founded on a false notion of the origin of the 
term. See above.] 
Abstract (ab'strakt), a. and n. [< L. abstractus, 
pp. of abstrahere : see abstract, v. As a philo- 
sophical term, it is a translation of Gr. ra tf 
f."] I. a. 1. Conceived apart from 
24 
matter and from special cases : as, an abstract 
number, a number as conceived in arithmetic, 
not a number of things of any kind. Originally 
applied to geometrical forms (the inetaphur being that 
of a statue hewn from a stone), and down to the twelfth 
century restricted exclusively to mathematical forms and 
quantities. (Isidorus, about A. I). 800, defines abstract 
number.) It is now applied to anything of a general nature 
which is considered apart from special circumstances : 
thus, abttraci right is what ought to be done indepen- 
dently of instituted law. [The phrase in the abstract is 
preferable to the adjective in this sense.] 
Abstract natures are as the alphabet or simple letters 
whereof the variety of things consisteth ; or as the colours 
mingled in the painter's shell, wherewith he is able to 
make infinite variety of faces and shapes. 
Eaton, Valerius Maximns, xiii. 
Abstract calculations, in questions of finance are not 
to be relied on. A. Hamilton, Works, I. 129. 
Consider the positive science of Crystallography, and 
presently it appears that the mineralogist is studying the 
abstract Crystal, its geometrical laws and its physical 
properties. 
abstraction 
He hath an abstract for the remembrance of such places 
and ,i;c>es to them by his note. Slink., M. \V. of W., iv. 2. 
5. In gram., an abstract term or noun. 
The concrete "like" lias its ,ii,xtniet "likeness"; the 
concretes "father "and "son" have, or might have, the 
abstracts "paternity" and "flliety" or "filiation " 
J. S. Mill. 
Abstract of title, in law, an epitome or a short state- 
ment of the successive title-deeds or other evidences of 
ownerahipof an estate, and of the encumbrances there- 
on. In the abstract |L. in ofatraeto], conceived apart 
from matter or special circumstances ; without reference 
to particular applications; in its general principles or 
meanings. 
Were all things red, the conception of colour in the ab- 
stract could not exist. //. Spencer, Data of Ethics, 46. 
Be the system of absolute religious equality good or 
bad, pious or profane, in the abstract, Neither churchmen 
nor statesmen can afford to ignore the question, How 
will it work? //. .V. Oxenham, Short Studies, p. 401. 
= Syn. 1. Abridgment, Compendium, Epitome, Abstract, 
etc. See abrtdffnatt. 
0. H. Lewes, Probs. of Life and Mind, I. i. 61. abstracted (ab-strak'ted), p. a. 1. Refined; 
2. In gram, (since the thirteenth century), exalted: as, "abstracted spiritual love," Donne. 
applied specially to that class of nouns which 2. Difficult; abstruse; abstract. Johnson. 
are formed from adjectives and denote char- 3. Absent in mind ; absorbed ; inattentive to 
acter, as goodness, audacity, and more gen- immediate surroundings. 
And now no more the abstracted ear attends 
The water's murmuring lapse. 
T. Warton, Melancholy, v. 179. 
erally to all nouns that do not name concrete 
things. Abstract in this sense is a prominent term in 
the logic of Occam and of the English nominalists. 
Of the name of the thing itself, by a little change or 
wresting, we make a name for that accident which we 
Thy dark vague eyes, and soft abstracted air. 
M. Arnold, Scholar-Gipsy. 
"mo a" " ' " f t" "i i" u ' e "! f r = Syn. 3. Absent, Inattentive, Abstracted, etc. Seeabsent 
"length'"; and the like: and 'all such nanVes areTh'e abstractedly (ab-strak'ted-li), adv. 1. In an 
names of the accidents and properties by which one mat- abstracted or absent manner. 2. In the ab- 
ter and body is distinguished from another. These are stract ; in a separated state, or in contempla- 
called" names abstract," because severed, not from matter, tion only. 
but from the account of matter. Hobbes, Leviathan, i. 4! 
A mark is needed to shew when the connotation is 
dropped. A slight mark put upon the connotative term 
answers the purpose ; and shews when it is not meant that 
anything should be connoted. In regard to the word 
tion only. 
It may indeed be difficult for those who have but little 
faith in the invisible ... to give up their own power of 
judging what seems best, from the belief that that only is 
best which is abstractedly right. 
. .^. B . vu , nvcu //. Silencer, Social Statics, p. 57. 
black, for example, we merely annex to it the syllable v * 4. j / v. 
ness ; and it is immediately indicated that all connotation abstractedness (ab-strak ted-nes), n. The 
is dropped : so in sweetness, hardness, dryness, lightness, state of being abstracted ; abstractness : as, 
The new words, so formed, are the words which have been '.' the abstractedness of these speculations " 
denominated abstract; as the connotative terms from TJume Human TTnilprqtanHino. * 1 
which they are formed have been denominated concrete ' rstanding, $ I. 
and as these terms are in frequent use, it is necessary that 
the meaning of them should be well remembered. It is 
now also manifest what is the real nature of abstract 
terms ; a subject which has in general presented such an 
appearance of mystery. They are simply the concrete 
terms with the connotation dropped. 
Why not say at once that the 
of the attribute ? J. S. Mill. 
3f. Having the mind drawn away from present 
objects, as in ecstasy and trance ; abstracted : 
Advance in representativeness of thought makes pos- 
sible advance in abstractedness: particular properties and 
particular relations become thinkable apart from the 
things displaying them. 
H. Spencer, Prin. of Psychol., 493. 
Ss^fthe Human Mind ix abstracter (ab-strak'ter), n. 1. One who ab- 
abstract name is the name St , ra , CtS . Or take8 away.- 2. One who makes an 
abstract or summary. 
The London Chemical Society, a few years ago, issued to 
nc asrace : * 
as, "abstract as m a trance," Milton. P. L.. ._, 
viii. 462. 4. Produced by the mental process abstraction (ab-strak shon), n. [<LL. abstrac- 
of abstraction : as, an abstract idea. Under this f r L ( >(>'->, <} abstrahere : see abstract, i:^ 1. 
head belong two meanings of abstract which can hardly be i ne act taking away or separating ; the act 
tory sense : as, the abstraction (dishonest removal, larceny) 
of goods from a warehouse. 
A hermit wishes to be praised for his abstraction [that 
is, his withdrawal from society]. Pope, Letters. 
The sensation of cold is really due to an abstraction of 
heat from our own bodies. 
W. L. Carpenter, Energy in Nature, p. 41. 
Wordsworth's better utterances have the bare sincerity, 
ic absolute abstraction from time and place, the im- 
munity from decay, that belong to the grand simplicities 
Lowell, Among my Books, 2d ser., p. 246. 
L^^HV;,, . VWVBVU. ,,- ; of abstracting or concentrating the 
plied' logic and mathematics. 7. Separated attention on a part of a complex idea and neg- 
from material elements ; ethereal ; ideal. I? ! 8 * * res j ; S r .supposing it away ; especially, 
that variety of this procedure by which we pass 
from a more to a less determinate concept, from 
the particular to the general ; the act or process 
English would greatly confuse our historical terminology. 
(b) Resulting from analytical thought ; severed from its 
connections ; falsified by the neglect of important con- 
siderations. This is the Hegelian meaning of the word, car- 
rying with it a tacit condemnation of the method of ana- 
lytical mechanics and of all application of mathematics. 
6. Demanding a high degree of mental abstrac- 
tion ; difficult ; profound ; abstruse : as, highly _ , jt 
abstract conceptions; very abstract specula- -he absolute abstraction from time and place, the im- 
tipns. 6. Applied to a science which deals """"''" trnm w " 1 ' * h - t h - 1 """ *" th " "">"< ' 11 - ui ~ 
with its object in the abstract : as, abstract 
logic ; abstract mathematics : opposed to an- 
,,?. .7 1 I _ J _ _ J.1- . _ J. . i. n . ^ 
of refining or sublimating. 
The mind makes the particular ideas, received from par- 
Love's not so pure and abstract as they use 
To say, which have no mistress but their muse. 
Donne, Poems, p. 27. 
Abstract arithmetic. See arithmetic, 2. 
H. n. 1. That which concentrates in itself , r _ 
the essential qualities of anything more exten- ticular objects, to become general ; which is done by con- 
sive or more general, or of several things ; the 8iderin 8 t-iem a ?, tne _ y are ." the mind 8uch appearances, 
psspTioB cnooifioo separate from all other existences, and the circumstances 
isence, specifically, a summary or epitome of real existence, as time, place, or any other concomitant 
containing the substance, a general view, or ideas. This is called abstraction, whereby ideas, taken 
the principal heads of a writing, discourse, from particular beings, become general representatives of 
series of events, or the like. " of the same k , ind : . 
Locke, Human Understanding, II. xi. 9. 
To be plain, I own myself able to abstract in one sense, 
as when I consider some particular parts or qualities sep- 
arated from others, with which, though they are united in 
some object, yet it is possible they may really exist with- 
out them. But I deny that I can abstract one from an- 
other, or conceive separately, those qualities which it is 
impossible should exist so separated ; or that I can frame 
a general notion by abstracting from particulars in the 
manner aforesaid. Which two hist are the proper accep- 
tations of abstraction. 
Berkeley, Prin. of Human Knowl., Int., *![ 10. 
The active mental process by which concepts are formed 
is commonly said to fall into three stages, comparison, 
abstraction, and generalization. . . . When things are 
widely unlike one another, as for example different fruits, 
as a strawberry, a peach, and so on, we must, in order to 
note the resemblance, turn the mind away from the differ* 
You shall find there 
A man who is the abstract of all faults 
That all men follow. Shall., A. and C., i. 4. 
This is but a faint abstract of the things which have 
happened since. I). Webster, Bunker Hill Monument. 
2. That portion of a bill of quantities, an esti- 
mate, or an account which contains the sum- 
mary of the various detailed articles. 3. In 
pltar., a dry powder prepared from a drug by 
digesting it with suitable solvents, and evap- 
orating the solution so obtained to complete 
dryness at a low temperature (122 F.). it is 
twice as strong as the drug or the fluid extract, and 
about ten times as strong as the tincture. 
4. A catalogue ; an inventory. [Bare.] 
