ab·stract

(ăb-străkt′, ăb′străkt′)

adj.

1. Considered apart from concrete existence: an abstract concept.

2. Not applied or practical; theoretical.

3. Difficult to understand; abstruse: abstract philosophical problems.

4. Denoting something that is immaterial, conceptual, or nonspecific, as an idea or quality: abstract words like truth and justice.

5. Impersonal, as in attitude or views.

6. Having an intellectual and affective artistic content that depends solely on intrinsic form rather than on narrative content or pictorial representation: abstract painting and sculpture.

n. (ăb′străkt′)

1. A statement summarizing the important points of a text.

2. Something abstract.

3. An abstract of title.

tr.v. (ăb-străkt′) ab·stract·ed, ab·stract·ing, ab·stracts

a. To take away; remove: abstract the most important data from a set of records.

b. To remove without permission; steal: a painting that was abstracted from the museum.

2. To consider (an idea, for example) as separate from particular examples or objects: abstract a principle of arrangement from a series of items.

3. (ăb′străkt′) To write a summary of; summarize: abstract a long article in a paragraph.

4. To create artistic abstractions of (something else, such as a concrete object or another style): "The Bauhaus Functionalists were ... busy unornamenting and abstracting modern architecture, painting and design" (John Barth).

Idiom:

in the abstract

In a way that is conceptual or theoretical, as opposed to actual or empirical.

[Middle English, from Latin abstractus, past participle of abstrahere, to draw away : abs-, ab-, away; see ab-¹ + trahere, to draw.]

ab·stract′er n.

ab·stract′ly adv.

ab·stract′ness n.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

abstractly

(ˈæbstræktlɪ)

adv

in an abstract manner, theoretically

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Adv.

abstractly - in abstract terms

concretely - in concrete terms; "concretely, this meant that he was broke"

Translations

abstraitement

astrattamente

abstractly

[ˈæbstræktli] adv → d'une manière abstraiteabstract noun n → nom m abstrait

Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Abstractly, theoretically, she did not merely justify, she positively approved of Anna's conduct.

As a general principle, abstractly, Dolly approved of Anna's action; but to see the man for whose sake her action had been taken was disagreeable to her.

View in context

To speak less abstractly. In England, for example, no mere parade of costly appurtenances would be so likely as with us, to create an impression of the beautiful in respect to the appurtenances themselves - or of taste as regards the proprietor: - this for the reason, first, that wealth is not, in England, the loftiest object of ambition as constituting a nobility; and secondly, that there, the true nobility of blood, confining itself within the strict limits of legitimate taste, rather avoids than affects that mere costliness in which a parvenu rivalry may at any time be successfully attempted.

View in context

When he thought of Ellen Olenska it was abstractly, serenely, as one might think of some imaginary beloved in a book or a picture: she had become the composite vision of all that he had missed.

View in context

"I never thought about it so abstractly," he confessed.

View in context

Gloriana, the Fairy Queen, is abstractly Glory, but humanly she is Queen Elizabeth; and from other points of view Elizabeth is identified with several of the lesser heroines.

View in context

Put thus broadly and abstractly, the answer must be negative.

View in context

The Russian government has nothing to do with any interferences [ in the US elections], especially those which were abstractly described [ in the report]|", Peskov pointed out.

Moscow: US Report on Russia's Alleged Election Meddling Causes Misunderstanding

The researchers interpreted this effect in light of construal level theory, which proposes that the farther away something is, either physically, emotionally, or socially, the more abstractly we perceive it.

How to turn your weakness into strengths

"It's about that specific moment in time when you both get the carpet pulled from underneath you, and everything you've been abstractly dreaming about suddenly becomes a reality.

No Blurred lines

The topics addressed include "art as history," in which each art object preserves a moment in art's own significant history; the museum as a place of serious study and education; the close historical relationship between calligraphy and painting and their primacy among Chinese fine arts; the parallel development of representational painting and sculpture in early painting history; the greater significance of brushwork, seen abstractly as a means of personal expression by the artist, in later painting history; the paradigmatic importance of the master-to-follower lineage as a social force in shaping the continuity and directing the subtle changes in Chinese painting history.

What We Are Reading Today: Art as History Calligraphy and Painting as One

Students are also provided opportunities to reason abstractly and quantitatively by interpreting data and graphs and using mathematical models to describe typical weather conditions during particular seasons.

Blizzard Shoe