[f. ABSTRACTED + -NESS.] The state of being abstracted or withdrawn. Hence,

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  † 1.  = ABSTRACTNESS. Obs.

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1665.  Glanville, Scepsis Scient., 63. It was not only the abstractedness of the matter, that rendered Aristotle’s physiology so difficult of comprehension.

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  † 2.  Withdrawal of self, disinterestedness. Obs.

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1748.  Richardson, Clarissa (1811), I. xx. 148. Your abstractedness, child, savours, let me tell you, of greater particularity, than what we aim to carry.

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  3.  Withdrawal from the contemplation of present things; absence (of mind).

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1705.  Stanhope, Paraphr., III. 209. Not that we are to like or love nothing but Him; for of such Abstractedness our Condition is not capable.

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1844.  Phillips, Mem. of Smith, 109. A certain abstractedness of mind … continually broke the symmetry of Mr. Smith’s lectures.

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  4.  Ideality.

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1878.  Dowden, Studies, 425. He … can value the abstractedness, the aspiration, the Druidic nature-worship of Laprade.

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