vbl. sb. [f. ABSTRACT v. + -ING1.] The act or process of withdrawing, separating, taking away, or forming abstract notions. (Now mostly gerundial.)
1690. Locke, Hum. Underst. (ed. 3), II. xi. 76. The power of Abstracting is not at all in them [the beasts].
1879. J. Wrightson, Farming, etc., in Cassell’s Techn. Educ., IV. 108/2. We conclude … by abstracting a sentence or two from Mr. H. N. Jenkins’s report.
