Ab"sti*nent (&?;), a. [F. abstinent, L. abstinens, p. pr. of abstinere. See Abstain.] Refraining from indulgence, especially from the indulgence of appetite; abstemious; continent; temperate. Beau. & Fl.
Ab"sti*nent, n. 1. One who abstains.
2. (Eccl. Hist.) One of a sect who appeared in France and Spain in the 3d century.
Ab"sti*nent*ly, adv. With abstinence.
Ab*stort"ed (&?;), a. [As if fr. abstort, fr. L. ab, abs + tortus, p. p. of torquere to twist.] Wrested away. [Obs.] Bailey.
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.