Abstract

[imp. & p. p. ABSTRACTED; p. pr. & vb. n. ABSTRACTING. [Lat. abstractus, p. p. of abstrahere, to draw from or separate, from ab, abs, and trahere, which is the English draw, q. v.; Fr. abstraire.]

1Sense 1. To draw from or separate; as, to abstract an action from its evil effects.

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

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

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

4Sense 4. To epitomize or reduce. Watts.

5Sense 5. To take secretly for one's own use from the property of another; to purloin; as, to abstract goods from a parcel, or money from a bank. Howitt.

6Sense 6. (Chem.) To separate, as the more volatile parts of a substance, by distillation.

☞ In this sense extract is now more generally used.

To perform the process of abstraction. [Rare.] I own myself able to abstract in one sense. Berkeley.

A concrete name is a name which stands for a thing; an abstract name is a 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.

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 subject 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, that branch of mathematics which treats of magnitude or quantity, without restriction to any particular species of magnitude, as arithmetic and geometry;—opposed to mixed mathematics, which treats of simple properties, and the relations of quantity, as applied to sensible objects, as hydrostatics, navigation, optics, &c.

n. 1. That which comprises or concentrates in itself the essential qualities of a larger thing, or of several things; specifically, an inventory, summary, or epitome, as of a treatise, book. “An abstract of every treatise he had read.” Watts.

Man the abstract Of all perfection which the workmanship Of Heaven hath modeled. Ford.

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

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

Synonyms—Abridgment; compendium; epitome; synopsis. See ABRIDGMENT.