a. and sb. [ad. L. absorbent-em, pr. pple. of ab-sorbēre: see ABSORB.]
A. adj. Absorbing, imbibing, swallowing; absorptive. Absorbent system, see B 3.
1718. Quincy, Compl. Disp., 81. It is both detergent and absorbent.
1752. Brooke, Inoculation, in Phil. Trans., XLVII. 471. The absorbent vessels … will always take in a sufficient quantity of the matter to contaminate the whole mass of the circulating fluids.
1869. Phillips, Vesuvius, v. 140. Rain sinks in some considerable proportion into the absorbent soil.
B. sb. An absorbing substance or apparatus.
1. Any substance that absorbs fluids through its sensible or insensible porosity; applied in a special sense in Med. to such substances as chalk, magnesia, which absorb the acidity of the stomach.
1718. Quincy, Compl. Disp., 79. Dryers, or Absorbents,… prevent those superfluous Moistures, which the Nerves are frequently overcharg’d with.
1769. Buchan, Dom. Med. (1826), xlii. 175. But the best and safest absorbent is magnesia alba.
1845. Darwin, Voy. of Nat., xi. 249 (1879). The clouded sky seldom allows the sun to warm the ocean, itself a bad absorbent of heat.
1875. Wood, Therap. (1879), 611. Absorbents, This class contains remedies which are used for the purpose of absorbing acrid and deleterious materials,… on the exterior of the body, and … in the alimentary canal.
2. fig.
1821–30. Ld. Cockburn, Mem. Own Time, 220. The country gentlemen, the absorbents of every prejudice.
1875. Helps, Ess., Org. Daily Life, 174. A persecution, which pinches, but does not suppress, is merely an irritant, and not an absorbent.
3. Physiol. (in plural.) The vessels through which the process of absorption is carried on in animals and plants, such as the lacteals in the former, the extremities of the roots in the latter. Attrib. in absorbent system.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Suppl. Naturalists speak of the like Absorbents in plants; the fibrous or hairy roots of which are considered as a kind of vasa Absorbentia.
1795. Abernethy, Anat. of Whale, in Phil. Trans., LXXXVI. 29. Absorbents … which terminated by open orifices.
1836. Todd, Cycl. An. & Ph., I. 20/1. The absorbents … were among the organs which were the latest in being discovered by anatomists.
1847. Youatt, Horse, vi. 110. Much of the cartilage is taken away by vessels called absorbents.
1856. Woodward, Fossil Shells, 30. The mollusca have no distinct absorbent system.
