[ad. L. abductiōn-em n. of action f. abdūcĕre; cf. Fr. abduction: see ABDUCE.] A leading or drawing away, in var. senses of vbs. abduce and abduct. In Johnson 1773, with no quot., but much earlier in Anatomy and Logic.
1. A leading away.
1626. Cockeram, Abduction: a leading away.
1873. Times, Sept. 9. Increased abduction of the stream by the water companies.
2. The act of illegally carrying off or leading away anyone, such as a wife, child, ward, voter. Applied to any leading away of a minor under the age of sixteen, without the consent of the parent or guardian; and the forcible carrying off of any one above that age.
1768. Blackst., Comm., IV. IV. xv. § 9. 218. The other offence, that of kidnapping, being the forcible abduction or stealing away of a man, woman, or child from their own country, and sending them into another, was capital by the Jewish law.
1833. Penny Cycl., I. 19/1. The forcible abduction and marriage of women is a felony.
1835. Thirlwall, Greece, I. v. 153. In the abduction of Helen, Paris repeats an exploit attributed to Theseus.
3. The muscular withdrawal of a limb or other part of the body outward from the medial line.
1666. J. Smith, Solomon’s Portr. Old Age (1676), 62. If we consider how they [the muscles] can stir the limb inward and outward, they can perform adduction, abduction.
1787. A. Fyfe, Compend. of Anat. (1815), I. II. 294. Pyriformis [Muscle] … Action: To assist in the Abduction of the Thigh, and in its rotation outwards.
1836. Todd, Cycl. An. & Ph., I. 156/1. Those motions of inclination of the foot known under the names of adduction and abduction … take place in the joints of the tarsus.
4. Surg. The separation of contiguous parts after a transverse fracture, causing the gaping of a wound, the recession of the two parts of a broken bone, etc.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v. This Abduction is the same with what Greek writers call ἅπαγμα or ἀπόκλασμα…. Some Latin writers call it abruptio.
1879. Syd. Soc. Lex., s.v.
5. Logic. A syllogism, of which the major premiss is certain, and the minor only probable, so that the conclusion has only the probability of the minor; apagoge.
1696. Phillips, Abduction is an Argument which leads from the conclusion to the demonstrations of the hidden and not signified Proposition.
1766. Scott, Dict. Arts & Science. Abduction, in logic a form of reasoning called by the Greeks apagoge, in which the greater extreme is evidently contained in the medium, but the medium not so evidently in the lesser extreme.
1872. Grote, Aristotle, I. vi. 290. After adverting to another variety of ratiocinative procedure, which he calls Apagoge or Abduction … Aristotle goes on to treat of Objection generally.
