[ad. L. absorptiōn-em a swallowing, n. of action f. absorpt-us: see ABSORPT.] The act or process of swallowing up or sucking in. Hence,
I. Swallowing up.
† 1. The swallowing up or engulfing of bodies. Obs.
1597. J. King, Jonah (1864), xxii. 139. The absorption or burial.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Rem., 24 (1808). The aversion of God’s face is confusion … but his whole fury is the utter absorption of the creature.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Suppl. Absorptions of the Earth, a term used by Kircher and others, for the sinking in of large tracts of land, by means of subterranean commotions.
2. The swallowing up or disappearance of things through their inclusion in or assimilation to something else; incorporation in something else.
1741. Warburton, Alliance Ch. and St., 165 (T.). Of the ancient Greek philosophy … its gradual decay, and total absorption in the schools.
1834. Gen. Thompson, Exerc. (1842), III. 201. But at the same time that copyists were being thrown out of employ, printers must have been in demand; here then was one way for the absorption of at least a portion of the copyists.
1860. All Y. Round, No. 68, 418. The absorption of dialects by the Latin … gave a great impulse to civilisation.
1878. Seeley, Stein, III. 415. A provision expressly intended to prevent the absorption of peasant-holdings.
b. Med. and Path. Removal of tissues or deposits by natural process, or by the use of medicines.
1804. Abernethy, Surg. Observ., 16. Another curative indication naturally arises which is to promote the absorption of the new formed substance.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 20. Spaces are then formed in this substance by absorption.
3. Entire engrossment or engagement of the mind or faculties.
1855. Dickens, Lett. (1880), I. 379. The absorption of the English mind in the war.
1859. Geo. Eliot, Adam Bede, 26. It was an expression of unconscious placid gravity of absorption in thoughts that had no connection with the present moment.
1875. Farrar, Silence & Voices, ix. 764. Blind, groping, illiberal absorption in some mechanical routine.
II. Drinking in.
4. The sucking in of fluid or of particles dissolved therein; the taking up of imponderable agents, such as light. (The investigation of the relative quantities of colored rays absorbed in various media gives rise to attributive uses of the word, as absorption spectrum, absorption-band.)
1744. Warrick, Injection, in Phil. Trans., XLIX. 489. Wherein the power of absorption seemed very considerable.
1794. J. Hutton, Philos. Light, Heat, & Fire, 89. Such are the laws observed in the various absorption and reflection of light.
1794. Sullivan, View Nat., V. 329. The Arena, so called from its being covered with sand for the absorption of the blood.
1854. Balfour, Outl. Bot., 133. When liquids are brought into contact with the leaves of plants, absorption takes place.
1867. J. Hogg, Microsc., I. ii. 121. For most absorption-bands particularly if faint the prism would be used in the first position.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sci. (ed. 6), I. ii. 35. In this transfer … consists the absorption of radiant heat.
5. Physiol. The imbibing of fluids by the vessels or tissues of the body; esp. the reception of nutritive material by the lacteals of the intestine.
1753. Chambers, Cycl. Supp., s.v., Absorption in the animal economy is used for that power whereby the small open orifices of vessels imbibe liquors.
1848. Carpenter, Anim. Phys., 37. It is by means of the membrane lining the digestive cavity, that the functions of digestion & absorption are performed.
1881. Mivart, Cat, 167. Another process, which is ancillary to nutrition and secretion, is termed Absorption.
