Part 26

Syn. -- Sudden; unexpected; hasty; rough; curt; unceremonious; rugged; blunt; disconnected; broken.

Ab*rupt" (&?;), n. [L. abruptum.] An abrupt place. [Poetic]

"Over the vast abrupt." Milton.

Ab*rupt", v. t. To tear off or asunder. [Obs.] "Till death abrupts them." Sir T. Browne.

Ab*rup"tion (&?;), n. [L. abruptio, fr. abrumpere: cf. F. abruption.] A sudden breaking off; a violent separation of bodies. Woodward.

Ab*rupt"ly, adv. 1. In an abrupt manner; without giving notice, or without the usual forms; suddenly.

2. Precipitously.

Abruptly pinnate (Bot.), pinnate without an odd leaflet, or other appendage, at the end. Gray.

Ab*rupt"ness, n. 1. The state of being abrupt or broken; craggedness; ruggedness; steepness.

2. Suddenness; unceremonious haste or vehemence; as, abruptness of style or manner.

Ab"scess (&?;), n.; pl. Abscesses (&?;). [L. abscessus a going away, gathering of humors, abscess, fr. abscessus, p. p. of absedere to go away; ab, abs + cedere to go off, retire. See Cede.] (Med.) A collection of pus or purulent matter in any tissue or organ of the body, the result of a morbid process.

Cold abscess, an abscess of slow formation, unattended with the pain and heat characteristic of ordinary abscesses, and lasting for years without exhibiting any tendency towards healing; a chronic abscess.

Ab*sces"sion (&?;), n. [L. abscessio a separation; fr. absedere. See Abscess.] A separating; removal; also, an abscess. [Obs.] Gauden. Barrough.

Ab*scind" (&?;), v. t. [L. absindere; ab + scindere to rend, cut. See Schism.] To cut off. [R.] "Two syllables . . . abscinded from the rest." Johnson.

Ab*sci"sion (&?;), n. [L. abscisio.] See Abscission.

Ab"sciss (&?;), n.; pl. Abscisses (&?;). See Abscissa.

Ab*scis"sa (&?;), n.; E. pl. Abscissas, L. pl. Abscissæ. [L., fem. of abscissus, p. p. of absindere to cut of. See Abscind.] (Geom.) One of the elements of reference by which a point, as of a curve, is referred to a system of fixed rectilineal coördinate axes. When referred to two intersecting axes, one of them called the axis of abscissas, or of X, and the other the axis of ordinates, or of Y, the abscissa of the point is the distance cut off from the axis of X by a line drawn through it and parallel to the axis of Y. When a point in space is referred to three axes having a common intersection, the abscissa may be the distance measured parallel to either of them, from the point to the plane of the other two axes. Abscissas and ordinates taken together are called coördinates. -- OX or PY is the abscissa of the point P of the curve, OY or PX its ordinate, the intersecting lines OX and OY being the axes of abscissas and ordinates respectively, and the point O their origin.

Ab*scis"sion (&?;), n. [L. abscissio. See Abscind.] 1. The act or process of cutting off. "Not to be cured without the abscission of a member." Jer. Taylor.

2. The state of being cut off. Sir T. Browne.

3. (Rhet.) A figure of speech employed when a speaker having begun to say a thing stops abruptly: thus, "He is a man of so much honor and candor, and of such generosity -- but I need say no more."

Ab*scond" (&?;), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Absconded; p. pr. & vb. n. Absconding.] [L. abscondere to hide; ab, abs + condere to lay up; con + dre (only in comp.) to put. Cf. Do.] 1. To hide, withdraw, or be concealed.

The marmot absconds all winter. Ray.

2. To depart clandestinely; to steal off and secrete one's self; -- used especially of persons who withdraw to avoid a legal process; as, an absconding debtor.

That very homesickness which, in regular armies, drives so many recruits to abscond. Macaulay.

Ab*scond", v. t. To hide; to conceal. [Obs.] Bentley.

Ab*scond"ence (&?;), n. Fugitive concealment; secret retirement; hiding. [R.] Phillips.

Ab*scond"er (&?;), n. One who absconds.

Ab"sence (&?;), n. [F., fr. L. absentia. See Absent.] 1. A state of being absent or withdrawn from a place or from companionship; -- opposed to presence.