\Ab"stract`\ (#; 277), a. [L. abstractus, p. p. of
abstrahere to draw from, separate; ab, abs + trahere to draw.
See {Trace}.]
1. Withdraw; separate. [Obs.]
         The more abstract . . . we are from the body.
                                               --Norris.
2. Considered apart from any application to a particular
   object; separated from matter; existing in the mind only;
   as, abstract truth, abstract numbers. Hence: ideal;
   abstruse; difficult.
3. (Logic)
   (a) Expressing a particular property of an object viewed
       apart from the other properties which constitute it;
       -- opposed to {concrete}; as, honesty is an abstract
       word. --J. S. Mill.
   (b) Resulting from the mental faculty of abstraction;
       general as opposed to particular; as, ``reptile'' is
       an abstract or general name. --Locke.
             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.                       --J. S. Mill.
4. Abstracted; absent in mind. ``Abstract, as in a trance.''
   --Milton.
{An abstract idea} (Metaph.), an idea separated from a
   complex object, or from other ideas which naturally
   accompany it; as the solidity of marble when contemplated
   apart from its color or figure.
{Abstract terms}, those which express abstract ideas, as
   beauty, whiteness, roundness, without regarding any object
   in which they exist; or abstract terms are the names of
   orders, genera or species of things, in which there is a
   combination of similar qualities.
{Abstract numbers} (Math.), numbers used without application
   to things, as 6, 8, 10; but when applied to any thing, as
   6 feet, 10 men, they become concrete.
{Abstract} or {Pure mathematics}. See {Mathematics}.

\Ab*stract"\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Abstracted}; p. pr.
& vb. n. {Abstracting}.] [See {Abstract}, a.]
1. To withdraw; to separate; to take away.
         He was incapable of forming any opinion or
         resolution abstracted from his own prejudices. --Sir
                                               W. Scott.
2. To draw off in respect to interest or attention; as, his
   was wholly abstracted by other objects.
         The young stranger had been abstracted and silent.
                                               --Blackw. Mag.
3. To separate, as ideas, by the operation of the mind; to
   consider by itself; to contemplate separately, as a
   quality or attribute. --Whately.
4. To epitomize; to abridge. --Franklin.
5. To take secretly or dishonestly; to purloin; as, to
   abstract goods from a parcel, or money from a till.
         Von Rosen had quietly abstracted the bearing-reins
         from the harness.                     --W. Black.
6. (Chem.) To separate, as the more volatile or soluble parts
   of a substance, by distillation or other chemical
   processes. In this sense extract is now more generally
   used.

\Ab*stract"\, v. t.
To perform the process of abstraction. [R.]
      I own myself able to abstract in one sense. --Berkeley.

\Ab"stract`\, n. [See {Abstract}, a.]
1. That which comprises or concentrates in itself the
   essential qualities of a larger thing or of several
   things. Specifically: A summary or an epitome, as of a
   treatise or book, or of a statement; a brief.
         An abstract of every treatise he had read. --Watts.
         Man, the abstract Of all perfection, which the
         workmanship Of Heaven hath modeled.   --Ford.
2. A state of separation from other things; as, to consider a
   subject in the abstract, or apart from other associated
   things.
3. An abstract term.
         The concretes ``father'' and ``son'' have, or might
         have, the abstracts ``paternity'' and ``filiety.''
                                               --J. S. Mill.
4. (Med.) A powdered solid extract of a vegetable substance
   mixed with sugar of milk in such proportion that one part
   of the abstract represents two parts of the original
   substance.
{Abstract of title} (Law), an epitome of the evidences of
   ownership.
Syn: Abridgment; compendium; epitome; synopsis. See
     {Abridgment}.