[a. Fr. absente-r, ad. L. absentā-re to keep away; f. absent-em; see ABSENT a.]
† 1. trans. To keep away, detain or withhold from being present. Obs.
1530. Palsgr., 415. I absente farre out of presence, Je esloyngne; I absent or kepe out of sight, Je absente.
1557. Surrey, Aeneid, IV. 908. And cruel so absentest me from thy death.
1580. Sidney, Arcadia, I. 5. They absented his eyes from beholding the issue.
1678. Marvell, Growth of Popery, 28. The other, the honester Fellow it seems of the two, only was absented.
b. refl. To keep or withdraw (oneself) away.
a. 1420. Occleve, De Reg. Princ., 1434. From his cure he hym absentethe.
1480. Caxton, Chron. Eng., cclxii. 342. The quene with the prynce was in the north, and absented her from the kynge.
1602. Shaks., Haml., V. ii. 358. If thou did’st euer hold me in thy heart, Absent thee from felicitie awhile.
1786. T. Jefferson, Writings (1859), II. 47. I … hope that I may be permitted at times to absent myself from this place.
1855. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., III. 378. The Club attempted to induce the advocates to absent themselves from the bar.
† 2. intr. To be or stay away; to withdraw.
c. 1400. Rom. Rose, 4914. Though for a tyme his herte absente, It may not fayle, he shal repente.
1681. R. Knox, Hist. Rel. Ceylon, 137. Then we were bidden to absent, while they returned our answers to the King.
1709. in Strype’s Ann. Ref., xxix. 300. Many absented this afternoon, appearing neither in person nor proxy.
† 3. trans. (by omission of from; cf. avoid). To leave. Obs. rare.
1695. Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), III. 520. Bills of high treason are found at the sessions against 23 persons, most Romanists, who have absented the kingdom.
