[ad. L. abrupt-us broken off, precipitous, disconnected, pa. pple. of abrump-ĕre, f. ab off + rump-ĕre to break.]
† 1. Broken away (from restraint). Obs.
1583. Stubbes, Anat. Abuses (1877), 23. There is not a people more abrupte, wicked, or perverse, liuing upon the face of the Earth.
2. Broken off, terminating in a break. ? Obs.
1607. Topsell, Serpents (1653), 603. The voyce of Serpents … differeth from all other Beasts hissing, in the length thereof: for the hissing of a Tortoise is shorter and more abrupt.
1611. Speed, Hist. Brit., III. xxxix. § 5. 344. The Circle of their liues are oftentimes abrupt before it be drawn to the full round.
1634. Chillingworth, Charity by Cath., I. ii. § 9. Of Ecclesiastes he [Luther] saith, ‘This book is not full, there are in it many abrupt things.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Suppl., s.v. Amianthus, The bodies of it are flexile and elastic, and composed of short and abrupt filaments.
3. Characterized by sudden interruption or change; unannounced and unexpected; sudden, hasty.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., II. iii. 30. My lady craues, To know the cause of your abrupt departure?
a. 1725. Pope, Odyssey, I. 413. Abrupt, with eagle speed she cut the sky, Instant invisible to mortal eye.
1834. H. Miller, Sc. & Leg. (1857), xxviii. 420. The motions of the vessel were so fearfully abrupt and violent.
1871. Browning, Balaustion, 2135. Nor, of that harsh, abrupt resolve of thine, Any relenting is there!
b. Of literary style: Passing suddenly from thought to thought or phrase to phrase.
1636. B. Jonson, Discoveries, Wks. 1640, 119. The abrupt style, which hath many breaches, and doth not seeme to end, but fall.
1763. J. Brown, Poetry & Music, § 5. 84. His [Æschylus’] Imagery and Sentiments are great; his Style rugged and abrupt.
1877. Sparrow, Serm., vii. 93. In short, he is abrupt, in order to awake attention, and give it a right direction.
4. Precipitous, steep.
1618. Bolton, Florus, II. xii. 126. [He] walled Macedonia every where in … by planting Castles in abrupt places.
1726. Thomson, Winter, 99. Tumbling thro’ rocks abrupt, and sounding far.
1823. Rutter, Fonthill, 2. Across this valley is an abrupt ridge.
c. 1854. Stanley, Sinai & Palest. (1858), iii. 167. I do not mean that the ravines of Jerusalem are so deep and abrupt as those of Luxembourg.
5. a. Bot. Coming to a sudden termination; not tapering off, truncated. b. Geol. Of strata: Suddenly cropping out and presenting their edges.
1833. Lyell, Princ. Geol., III. 197. The Meerfelder Maar is a cavity of far greater size … the sides presenting some abrupt sections of inclined secondary rocks.
1854. Balfour, Bot., 395. The Tulip-tree, remarkable for its abrupt or truncated leaves.
B. sb. An abrupt place; a precipice, chasm, or abyss. (? Only in loc. cit.)
1667. Milton, P. L., II. 409. Upborn with indefatigable wings Over the vast abrupt, ere he arrive The happy Ile.
