Chapter Above-board to Absquatulate of A by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

is meant for Lord Shaftesbury, Zimri for the Duke of Buckingham, and Abdael for Monk. The selections are so skilfully made that the history of David seems repeated. Of Absalom, Dryden says (Part i.): -

"Whatever he did was done with so much ease,
In him alone 'twas natural to please;
His motions all accompanied with grace,
And paradise was opened in his face."

Abscond means properly to hide; but we generally use the word in the sense of stealing off secretly from an employer. (Latin, abscondo.)

Absent "Out of mind as soon as out of sight." Generally misquoted "Out of sight, out of mind." - Lord Brooke.

The absent are always wrong. The translation of the French proverb, Les absents ont toujours tort.

Absent Man (The). The character of Bruyère's Absent Man, translated in the Spectator and exhibited on the stage, is a caricature of Comte de Brancas.

Absolute A Captain Absolute, a bold, despotic man, determined to have his own way. The character is in Sheridan's play called The Rivals.

Sir Anthony Absolute, a warm-hearted, testy, overbearing country squire, in the same play. William Dowton (1764--1851) was nick-named "Sir Anthony Absolute."

Absquatulate To run away or abscond. A comic American word, from ab and squat (to go away from your squatting). A squatting is a tenement taken in some unclaimed part, without purchase or permission. The persons who take up their squatting are termed squatters.