The Collaborative International Dictionary
Abstract \Ab"stract`\ (#; 277), a. [L. abstractus, p. p. of abstrahere to draw from, separate; ab, abs + trahere to draw. See Trace.]
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Withdraw; separate. [Obs.]
The more abstract . . . we are from the body.
--Norris. 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.
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(Logic)
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.-
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.
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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 mathematics or Pure mathematics. See Mathematics.
Wiktionary
n. (plural of abstract term English)
Usage examples of "abstract terms".
The other is to explain their business in abstract terms proper to sorcery.
She wondered why scientists so often couched their views in abstract terms while giving their game away by the tone of voice, seemingly unaware that most people could read their emotions more tellingly than their ideas.
I merely answered a few of her questions, in quite abstract terms.
These were the abstract terms which first came to Ruiz-Sanchez' mind, but immediately he came to grief over a transitional thought.
These were the abstract terms which first came to Ruiz%Sanchez' mind, but immediately he came to grief over a transitional thought.
I prefer to see what I'm doing as the culmination of an evolutionary process that has been going on ever since Man first began to think in abstract terms.
He gave a lot of credit to the sergeant clerk he worked with, but I think it was Carswell who found in the job a sort of musical freedom working in purely abstract terms.
Did such a conglomeration of abstract terms give really the gist of our knowledge of the deity, schools of theology might indeed continue to flourish, but religion, vital religion, would have taken its flight from this world.
I'm not saying that your philosophy degree is worth any less than a biology degree, in abstract terms, or even that it isn't relevant, but you'd have to do a lot of reading in biochemistry.
I will only talk in abstract terms, so there's complete deniability, but I'm sure that your well-honed and well-brought-up intellect will understand.
Paul seldom thought of Garrett Wright in anything but abstract terms.
Mostly she'd talked of it in abstract terms: a place of sand and terror.
She felt abstract terms were called for in the face of such tyrannic grandeur.
You're always saying I can't think in abstract terms, but it went down okay with the Weinsteins.
There is no absolute anything save in abstract terms set up by the mind to work out exterior problems and achieve approximations.