German

Noun

Abstract m ‎(genitive Abstracts, plural Abstracts)

1. abstract

Declension

English

Noun

abstract ‎(plural abstracts)

1. An abridgement or summary of a longer publication. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]^[1]
   • Isaac Watts — An abstract of every treatise he had read.
2. Something that concentrates in itself the qualities of larger item, or multiple items. [First attested in the mid 16^th century.]^[1]
   • Ford — Man, the abstract Of all perfection, which the workmanship Of Heaven hath modeled.
   1. Concentrated essence of a product.
   2. (medicine) A powdered solid extract of a medicinal substance mixed with lactose.^[2]
3. An abstraction; an abstract term; that which is abstract. [First attested in the mid 16^th century.]^[1]
   • John Stuart Mill — The concretes "father" and "son" have, or might have, the abstracts "paternity" and "filiety".
4. The theoretical way of looking at things; something that exists only in idealized form. [First attested in the early 17^th century.]^[1]
5. (art) An abstract work of art. [First attested in the early 20^th century.]
6. (real estate) A summary title of the key points detailing a tract of land, for ownership; abstract of title.

Usage notes

• (theoretical way of looking at things): Preceded, typically, by the.

Synonyms

• (statement summarizing the important points of a text): abridgment, compendium, epitome, synopsis

Derived terms

• abstract of title

Translations

Adjective

abstract ‎(comparative more abstract or abstracter, superlative most abstract or abstractest)^[3]

1. (obsolete) Derived; extracted. [Attested from around 1350 to 1470 until the late 15^th century.]^[1]
2. (now rare) Drawn away; removed from; apart from; separate. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]^[1]
   • 17th century, John Norris (philosopher), The Oxford Dictionary:

     The more abstract we are from the body ... the more fit we shall be to behold divine light.

3. Expressing a property or attribute separately of an object that is considered to be inherent to that object. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]^[1]
4. Considered apart from any application to a particular object; not concrete; ideal; non-specific; general, as opposed to specific. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]^[1]
   • John Stuart Mill - A concrete name is a name which stands for a thing; an abstract name which stands for an attribute of a thing. A practice has grown up in more modern times, which, if not introduced by Locke, has gained currency from his example, of applying the expression "abstract name" to all names which are the result of abstraction and generalization, and consequently to all general names, instead of confining it to the names of attributes.
5. Difficult to understand; abstruse; hard to conceptualize. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]^[1]
   • 1929, Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms:

     Abstract words such as glory, honour, courage, or hallow were obscene.

6. (archaic) Absent-minded. [First attested in the early 16^th century.]^[1]
   • Milton

     abstract, as in a trance

   • 1922, D. H. Lawrence, Aaron's Rod:

     White and abstract-looking, he sat and ate his dinner.

7. (art) Pertaining to the formal aspect of art, such as the lines, colors, shapes, and the relationships among them. [First attested in the mid 19^th century.]^[1]
   1. (art, often capitalized) Free from representational qualities, in particular the non-representational styles of the 20^th century. [First attested in the mid 19^th century.]^[1]
   2. (music) Absolute.
   3. (dance) Lacking a story.
8. Insufficiently factual.^[3]
9. Apart from practice or reality; vague; theoretical; impersonal; not applied.
10. (grammar) As a noun, denoting an intangible as opposed to an object, place, or person.
11. (computing) Of a class in object-oriented programming, being a partial basis for subclasses rather than a complete template for objects.

Synonyms

• (not applied or practical): conceptual, theoretical
• (insufficiently factual): formal
• (difficult to understand): abstruse

Antonyms

• (not applied or practical): applied, practical
• (considered apart from concrete existence): concrete

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• reify

Verb

abstract ‎(third-person singular simple present abstracts, present participle abstracting, simple past and past participle abstracted)

1. (transitive) To separate; to disengage. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.]^[1]
   • Walter Scott - He was incapable of forming any opinion or resolution abstracted from his own prejudices.
2. (transitive) To remove; to take away; withdraw. [First attested in the late 15^th century.]^[1]
   • 1834, Harriet Martineau, Illustration of Political Economy, volume IX:

     The lightning of the public burdens, which at present abstract a large proportion of profits and wages.

   • Sir Walter Scott

     He was incapable of forming any opinion or resolution abstracted from his own prejudices.

3. (transitive, euphemistic) To steal; to take away; to remove without permission. [First attested in the late 15^th century.]^[1]
   • W. Black - Von Rosen had quietly abstracted the bearing-reins from the harness.
4. (transitive) To summarize; to abridge; to epitomize. [First attested in the late 16^th century.]^[1]

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Franklin to this entry?)

5. (transitive, obsolete) To extract by means of distillation. [Attested from the early 17^th century until the early 18^th century.]^[1]
   • 1601, John Marston, Antonio's Revenge, Act II, Scene I:

     Poison from roses who could e'er abstract?

6. (transitive) To consider abstractly; to contemplate separately or by itself; to consider theoretically; to look at as a general quality. [First attested in the early 17^th century.]^[1]
   • 1781, Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, volume II:

     To abstract the notions of time, of space, and of matter.

7. (intransitive, reflexive, literally figuratively) To withdraw oneself; to retire. [First attested in the mid 17^th century.]^[1]
8. (transitive) To draw off (interest or attention).
   • William Blackwood, Blackwood's Magazine - The young stranger had been abstracted and silent.

   He was wholly abstracted by other objects.

9. (intransitive, rare) To perform the process of abstraction.
   • George Berkeley - I own myself able to abstract in one sense.
10. (intransitive, fine arts) To create abstractions.
11. (intransitive, computing) To produce an abstraction, usually by refactoring existing code. Generally used with "out".

    He abstracted out the square root function.

Usage notes

• (to separate or disengage): Followed by the word from.
• (to withdraw oneself): Followed by the word from.
• (to summarize): Pronounced predominately as /ˈæbˌstrækt/.
• All other senses are pronounced as /æbˈstrækt/.

Synonyms

• (to remove, separate, take away, or withdraw): remove, separate, take away, withdraw
• (to abridge, epitomize, or summarize): abridge, epitomize, summarize
• (to filch, purloin, or steal): filch, purloin, steal

Derived terms

Related terms

• abstraction
• abstractive
• abstractum

Translations

References

• abstract in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913

1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Lesley Brown (editor), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition (Oxford University Press, 2003 [1933], ISBN 978-0-19-860575-7), page 10
2. ↑ Thomas, Clayton L., editor (1940) Taber's Encyclopedic Medical Dictionary, 5th edition, Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis Company, ISBN 0-8036-8313-8, published 1993, page 14
3. 1 2 Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909], ISBN 0-87779-101-5), page 8

Dutch

Pronunciation

Adjective

abstract ‎(comparative abstracter, superlative abstractst)

1. abstract
2. (art) abstract

Inflection

Antonyms

• (arts): figuratief

Romanian

Etymology

From literary Latin abstractus, German Abstrakt.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /abˈstrakt/^[1]

Adjective

abstract m, n ‎(feminine singular abstractă, masculine plural abstracți, feminine and neuter plural abstracte)

1. abstract

Antonyms

• concret

Related terms

References

1. ↑ http://www.pruteanu.ro/4doarovorba/doom.htm