But there are, alas, some who come for a less useful purpose, that of abstracting the grain.
Now to deplete is to check growth by abstracting the very source of nutriment.
He wasn't asleep this time, having just succeeded in abstracting a veal patty.
Acquisition by agreement of right of abstracting water from the river.
The entire nature of reason consists in generalizing sense perceptions, in abstracting the common elements out of concrete things.
Well, take the risk of abstracting one day's journals, and have them ready for me.
It can only be neutralised at the cost of abstracting lime from the system.
"You must have an extraordinary power of abstracting your mind," Bernard said to her, observing it.
But abstracting these glaring errors, the conception and execution of the work are as perfect as possible.
Jack motioned to Frank to search him, and the latter ran his hands over the others form, abstracting a revolver and a long knife.
late 14c., originally in grammar (of nouns), from Latin abstractus "drawn away," past participle of abstrahere "to drag away; detach divert," from ab(s)- "away" (see ab-) + trahere "draw" (see tract (n.1)).
Meaning "withdrawn or separated from material objects or practical matters" is from mid-15c. That of "difficult to understand, abstruse" is from c.1400. Specifically in reference to modern art, it dates from 1914; abstract expressionism as an American-based uninhibited approach to art exemplified by Jackson Pollack is from 1952, but the term itself had been used in the 1920s of Kandinsky and others.
Oswald Herzog, in an article on "Der Abstrakte Expressionismus" (Sturm, heft 50, 1919) gives us a statement which with equal felicity may be applied to the artistic attitude of the Dadaists. "Abstract Expressionism is perfect Expressionism," he writes. "It is pure creation. It casts spiritual processes into a corporeal mould. It does not borrow objects from the real world; it creates its own objects .... The abstract reveals the will of the artist; it becomes expression. ..." [William A. Drake, "The Life and Deeds of Dada," 1922]
"abridgement or summary of a document," mid-15c., from abstract (adj.). The general sense of "a smaller quantity containing the virtue or power of a greater" [Johnson] is recorded from 1560s.
1540s, from Latin abstractus or else from the adjective abstract. Related: Abstracted; abstracting, abstractedly.
abstract ab·stract (āb-strākt', āb'strākt')
adj.
Considered apart from concrete existence.
Not applied or practical; theoretical.
