abstract

noun

1. An abridgement or summary of a longer publication.

   “An analysis and abstract of every treatise he had read.”

2. Something that concentrates in itself the qualities of a larger item, or multiple items.

   “Man, the abstract Of all perfection, which the workmanship Of Heaven hath modeled.”

3. Something that concentrates in itself the qualities of a larger item, or multiple items.
4. Something that concentrates in itself the qualities of a larger item, or multiple items.
5. An abstraction; an abstract term; that which is abstract.

   “Thus the concrete like has its abstract likeness; the concretes, father and son, have the abstracts, paternity and filiation.”

6. The theoretical way of looking at things; something that exists only in idealized form.
7. An abstract work of art.
8. A summary title of the key points detailing a tract of land, for ownership; abstract of title.

adj

1. (obsolete)Derived; extracted.
2. (archaic)Drawn away; removed from; apart from; separate.

   “The more abstract we are from the body ... the more fit we shall be to behold divine light.”

3. Not concrete: conceptual, ideal.

   “Her new film is an abstract piece, combining elements of magic realism, flashbacks, and animation but with very little in terms of plot construction.”

4. Not concrete: conceptual, ideal.
5. Not concrete: conceptual, ideal.

   “During the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, this commitment brought him into frequent critical confrontation with entrenched forms of conservative thinking (in academic areas from history and social science to the more abstract domains of ethical and political philosophy),[…]”

6. Not concrete: conceptual, ideal.
7. Difficult to understand; abstruse; hard to conceptualize.

   “The politician gave a somewhat abstract answer when asked about their plans to cut spending.”

   “Abstract words such as glory, honour, courage, or hallow were obscene.”

8. Separately expressing a property or attribute of an object that is considered to be inherent to that object: attributive, ascriptive.

   “A concrete name is a name which stands for a thing; an abstract name which stands for an attribute of a thing...”

9. Pertaining comprehensively to, or representing, a class or group of objects, as opposed to any specific object; considered apart from any application to a particular object: general, generic, nonspecific; representational.

   “A concrete name is a name which stands for a thing; an abstract name which stands for an attribute of a thing.[…]A practice, however, 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.”

10. (archaic)Absent-minded.

    “Abſtract as in a tranſe methought I ſaw, abstract, as in a trance”

    “White and abstract-looking, he sat and ate his dinner.”

11. (capitalized, often)Pertaining to the formal aspect of art, such as the lines, colors, shapes, and the relationships among them.

    “But his design is wonderful. He’s getting more and more abstract every day. He’d given up the third dimension when I was there and was just thinking of giving up the second. Soon, he says, there’ll be just the blank canvas. That’s the logical conclusion. Complete abstraction.”

12. Pertaining to the formal aspect of art, such as the lines, colors, shapes, and the relationships among them.
13. Pertaining to the formal aspect of art, such as the lines, colors, shapes, and the relationships among them.
14. Being a partial basis for subclasses rather than a complete template for objects.

verb

1. (transitive)To separate; to disengage.

   “He was incapable of forming any opinion or resolution abstracted from his own prejudices.”

2. (transitive)To separate; to disengage.

   “The lightning of the public burdens, which at present abstract a large proportion of profits and wages.”

3. (euphemistic, transitive)To separate; to disengage.

   “Von Rosen had quietly abstracted the bearing-reins from the harness.”

   “The inlaid characters in diamond, and other precious stones, have been all abstracted away by the pelf-loving Jaut and Mahratta—leaving the walls defaced with the hollow marks of the chisel.”

   “Section 13 of the 1968 Act enacts a separate offence of dishonestly abstracting electricity. The separate offence is needed because electricity, like other forms of energy such as heat, is not property.”

4. (obsolete, transitive)To separate; to disengage.

   “Poison from roses who could e'er abstract?”

5. (transitive)To separate; to disengage.

   “The young stranger had been abstracted and silent.”

   “He was wholly abstracted by other objects.”

6. (figuratively, intransitive, literally, reflexive, transitive)To separate; to disengage.
7. (transitive)To separate; to disengage.

   “To abstract the notions of time, of space, and of matter.”

8. (transitive)To separate; to disengage.
9. (intransitive, rare, transitive)To separate; to disengage.

   “I own myself able to abstract in one sense.”

10. (intransitive, transitive)To separate; to disengage.
11. (intransitive, transitive)To separate; to disengage.

    “He abstracted out the square root function.”

12. (transitive)To summarize; to abridge; to epitomize.