2. The practice of self-denial by depriving one's self of certain kinds of food or drink, especially of meat.
Penance, fasts, and abstinence,
To punish bodies for the soul's offense.
Dryden.
Abstinency
(Ab"sti*nen*cy) n. Abstinence. [R.]
Abstinent
(Ab"sti*nent) a. [F. abstinent, L. abstinens, p. pr. of abstinere. See Abstain.] Refraining
from indulgence, especially from the indulgence of appetite; abstemious; continent; temperate. Beau. &
Fl.
Abstinent
(Ab"sti*nent), n.
1. One who abstains.
2. (Eccl. Hist.) One of a sect who appeared in France and Spain in the 3d century.
Abstinently
(Ab"sti*nent*ly), adv. With abstinence.
Abstorted
(Ab*stort"ed) a. [As if fr. abstort, fr. L. ab, abs + tortus, p. p. of torquere to twist.] Wrested
away. [Obs.] Bailey.
Abstract
(Ab"stract`) 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.
Abstract
(Ab*stract") v. t. [imp. & p. p. Abstracted; p. pr. & vb. n. Abstracting.] [See Abstract, a.]