Definition of Abstract

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Abstract

Withdraw; separate.

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.

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.

Resulting from the mental faculty of abstraction; general as opposed to particular; as, "reptile" is an abstract or general name.

Abstracted; absent in mind.

To withdraw; to separate; to take away.

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

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

To epitomize; to abridge.

To take secretly or dishonestly; to purloin; as, to abstract goods from a parcel, or money from a till.

To separate, as the more volatile or soluble parts of a substance, by distillation or other chemical processes. In this sense extract is now more generally used.

To perform the process of abstraction.

That which comprises or concentrates in itself the essential qualities of a larger thing or of several things. Specifically: A summary or an epitome, as of a treatise or book, or of a statement; a brief.

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

An abstract term.

A powdered solid extract of a vegetable substance mixed with sugar of milk in such proportion that one part of the abstract represents two parts of the original substance.

Related Definitions:

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Abstract Quotations

When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.
Albert Einstein

There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.
Pablo Picasso

Mankind is divided into rich and poor, into property owners and exploited; and to abstract oneself from this fundamental division; and from the antagonism between poor and rich means abstracting oneself from fundamental facts.
Joseph Stalin

We are all hungry and thirsty for concrete images. Abstract art will have been good for one thing: to restore its exact virginity to figurative art.
Salvador Dali

Praise or blame has but a momentary effect on the man whose love of beauty in the abstract makes him a severe critic on his own works.
John Keats

Wisdom is the abstract of the past, but beauty is the promise of the future.
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.
Saul Alinsky

I say a murder is abstract. You pull the trigger and after that you do not understand anything that happens.
Jean-Paul Sartre

Evil is the product of the ability of humans to make abstract that which is concrete.
Jean-Paul Sartre

Some manufacturers illustrate their advertisements with abstract paintings. I would only do this if I wished to conceal from the reader what I was advertising.
David Ogilvy

Abstract Translations

abstract in Afrikaans is oorsig
abstract in Danish is slutte, tage bort
abstract in Dutch is abstract, afgetrokken
abstract in German is abstrakt, abstrahieren, abstrahiere
abstract in Italian is astratto
abstract in Spanish is descolgar, resumen, abstracto, prescindir
abstract in Swedish is sammandrag, abstrakt

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