[ad. L. abstract-us drawn away, f. abs off, away + tractus, pa. pple. of trahĕre to draw.] At first, like its L. orig., a participle and adjective, accented abstra·ct; after the formation of the vb. abstract, ABSTRACTED gradually took its place as a participle, leaving a·bstract with a new accent as an adjective only.
A. pple. and adj.
† 1. Drawn, derived, extracted. Obs.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls Ser.), I. 21. The names of the auctores been rehersede here, of whom thys presente cronicle is abstracte.
1496. Bk. of St. Albans (1810), 6. The fyve perfyte [coats of arms] ben thise, Termynall: Collattrall: Abstrakte: Fyxall: & Bastarde.
† 2. Withdrawn, drawn away, removed, separate; = ABSTRACTED 1. Const. from. Obs.
1690. J. Norris, Beatitudes (1694), I. 171. The more abstract therefore we are from the body … the more fit we shall be both to behold, and to indure the Rays of the Divine Light.
1726. Lett., in Wodrow’s Corresp. (1843), III. 237. As to the other query about Mr. Simson, I believe you know I kept myself abstract in his former process.
1765. Harris, Three Treat., II. iv. 80. There is an eminent Delight in this very Recognition itself, abstract from anything pleasing in the Subject recognized.
3. Withdrawn from the contemplation of present objects; = ABSTRACTED 2. arch.
1509. Barclay, Ship of Fooles (1570), 51. Their minde abstract, not knowing what they say.
1860. R. A. Vaughan, Ho. w. Mystics, I. VI. i. 153. Master Eckart ceased, and went on his way again … with his steady step and abstract air.
4. Withdrawn or separated from matter, from material embodiment, from practice, or from particular examples. Opposed to concrete.
1557. Recorde, Whetst., A ii. Abstracte nombers are those, whiche have no denomination, annexed into them.
1651. Hobbes, Leviathan, I. iv. 16. Called names Abstract; because severed (not from Matter, but) from the account of Matter.
1678. Cudworth, Intell. Syst., 806. These Demons or Angels, are not Pure, Abstract, Incorporeal Substances.
1810. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 121. Luther lived long enough to see the consequences of the doctrines into which indignant pity and abstract ideas of right had hurried him.
1846. Mill, Logic, I. ii. § 4. 33. An abstract name is a name which stands for an attribute of a thing.
1851. Sir J. Herschel, Study of Nat. Phil., I. ii. 18. Abstract science is independent of a system of nature,—of a creation,—of everything, in short, except memory, thought, and reason.
1870. Yeats, Nat. Hist. Comm., 5. No amount of abstract reasoning would have led us to discover the properties and uses of iron.
1873. Gladstone, in Daily News, Feb. 19. What I understand by an abstract resolution is a resolution which does not carry with it an operative principle likely to produce within a reasonable time particular consequences.
b. Ideal.
1736. Butler, Analogy, II. viii. 399. That the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right ones is an abstract truth.
1775. Burke, Sp. on Concil. w. Am., Wks. III. 51. Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found. Liberty inheres in some sensible object.
1828. Sewell, Oxf. Prize Ess., 10. [They] never placed the perfection of human excellence, as Lycurgus, in the abstract soldier.
1840. Thirlwall, Greece, VII. lv. 110. It is not to be supposed, that … he was animated … by abstract philanthropy.
c. Abstruse.
1725. Wodrow, Corresp. (1843), III. 173. I was extremely pleased with some of his reasonings; but in some places he was so abstract and out of my dull way of thinking, that I could not reach him.
1794. Sullivan, View of Nat., I. iv. 21. [He] will tremblingly … repose upon abstract speculations, and incomprehensible mysteries.
5. absol. ‘The abstract,’ that which is abstract, the abstract consideration of things; the ideal.
1615. Crooke, Body of Man, 45. They adde indeed a perfection, not to life, that is, to the concreate as we say, but to liuing, that is, to the abstract.
1628. T. Spencer, Logic, 141. Justice in the abstract, is nothing.
1820. W. Irving, Sk. Bk., I. 47. She has no idea of poverty but in the abstract: she has only read of it in poetry.
B. sb. Something abstracted or drawn from others; hence,
1. ‘A smaller quantity containing the virtue or power of a greater’ (J.), or one thing concentrating in itself the virtues of several; a compendium.
1561. T. N[orton], trans. Calvin’s Inst. (1634), I. xiii. 57. So shall the Godhead of the Sonne bee an abstract from the essence of God, or a derivation out of a part of the whole.
1606. Shaks., Ant. & Cl., I. iv. 9. You shall finde there a man, who is th’ abstracts of all faults, That all men follow.
1677. Hale, Prim. Orig. Man., IV. viii. 362. He is an Abstract or Compendium of the greater World.
1836. Gen. Thompson, Exerc., IV. 127. The Peers are not an abstract, or at all events not a fair abstract, of the upper classes.
2. spec. A summary or epitome of a statement or document. Also attrib.
1528. Gardiner, in Pocock, Rec. of Ref., I. l. 117. We send herein enclosed, abstracts of such letters as hath been sent to the pope’s holiness.
1715. Burnet, Hist. own Time (1766), II. 82. I will give you here a short abstract of all that was said.
1799. Wellington, Lett. (G. D.), I. 34. In the abstracts, it appears that the strength of the … forces consisted of 48,000 men.
1863. Cox, Inst. of Eng. Govt., Pref. 8. Copies or abstracts of State papers and records.
1867. Smyth, Sailors’ Word-Bk., s.v. An abstract log contains the most important subjects of a ship’s log.
Abstract of title (Law): An epitome of the evidences of ownership.
1858. Ld. St. Leonards, Property Law, viii. 57. One great complaint at the present day, is the necessity of carrying back abstracts of title for sixty years.
3. An abstraction, an abstract term.
1530. Palsgr., 50. All suche substantives … especially if they be suche as the logicians call abstractes.
a. 1638. Mede, Apost. of latter Times, 100. The Hebrewes use Abstracts for Concretes … as justitia pro justis: captivity for captives.
1765. Tucker, Lt. of Nat., I. 498. Our abstracts derive all originally from the concrete.
1865. Farrar, Lang., 69. In this sense all words are Abstracta.
