| 释义 |
▪ I. abstract, ppl. a. and n.|ˈæbstrækt|
[ad. L. abstract-us drawn away, f. abs off, away + tractus, pa. pple. of trahĕre to draw.]
At first, like its L. orig., a participle and adjective, accented abˈstract; after the formation of the vb. abstract, abstracted gradually took its place as a participle, leaving ˈabstract with a new accent as an adjective only.
A. pple. and adj.
†1. Drawn, derived, extracted. Obs.
1387Trevisa Higden (Rolls Ser.) I. 21 The names of the auctores been rehersede here, of whom thys presente cronicle is abstracte. 1496Bk. of St. Albans (1810) 6 The fyve perfyte [coats of arms] ben thise, Termynall: Collattrall: Abstrakte: Fyxall: & Bastarde.
†2. Withdrawn, drawn away, removed, separate; = abstracted 1. Const. from. Obs.
1690J. Norris Beatitudes (1694) I. 171 The more abstract therefore we are from the body..the more fit we shall be both to behold, and to indure the Rays of the Divine Light. 1726Let. in Wodrow's Corresp. (1843) III. 237 As to the other query about Mr. Simson, I believe you know I kept myself abstract in his former process. 1765Harris Three Treat. ii. iv. 80 There is an eminent Delight in this very Recognition itself, abstract from anything pleasing in the Subject recognized.
3. Withdrawn from the contemplation of present objects; = abstracted 2. arch.
1509Barclay Ship of Fooles (1570) 51 Their minde abstract, not knowing what they say. 1860R. A. Vaughan Ho. w. Mystics I. vi. i. 153 Master Eckart ceased, and went on his way again..with his steady step and abstract air.
4. a. Withdrawn or separated from matter, from material embodiment, from practice, or from particular examples. Opposed to concrete.
1557Recorde Whetst. A ii, Abstracte nombers are those, whiche have no denomination annexed vnto them. 1651Hobbes Leviathan i. iv. 16 Called names Abstract; because severed (not from Matter, but) from the account of Matter. 1678Cudworth Intell. Syst. 806 These Demons or Angels, are not Pure, Abstract, Incorporeal Substances. 1810Coleridge Friend (1865) 121 Luther lived long enough to see the consequences of the doctrines into which indignant pity and abstract ideas of right had hurried him. 1846Mill Logic i. ii. §4. 33 An abstract name is a name which stands for an attribute of a thing. 1851Sir J. Herschel Study of Nat. Phil. i. ii. 18 Abstract science is independent of a system of nature,—of a creation,—of everything, in short, except memory, thought, and reason. 1870Yeats Nat. Hist. Comm. 5 No amount of abstract reasoning would have led us to discover the properties and uses of iron. 1873Gladstone in Daily News Feb. 19 What I understand by an abstract resolution is a resolution which does not carry with it an operative principle likely to produce within a reasonable time particular consequences.
b. Ideal.
1736Butler Analogy ii. viii. 399 That the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right ones is an abstract truth. 1775Burke Sp. on Concil. w. Am. Wks. III. 51 Abstract liberty, like other mere abstractions, is not to be found. Liberty inheres in some sensible object. 1828Sewell Oxf. Prize Ess. 10 [They] never placed the perfection of human excellence, as Lycurgus, in the abstract soldier. 1840Thirlwall Greece VII. lv. 110 It is not to be supposed, that..he was animated..by abstract philanthropy.
c. Abstruse.
1725Wodrow Corresp. (1843) III. 173, I was extremely pleased with some of his reasonings; but in some places he was so abstract and out of my dull way of thinking, that I could not reach him. 1794Sullivan View of Nat. I. iv. 21 [He] will tremblingly..repose upon abstract speculations, and incomprehensible mysteries.
d. In the fine arts, characterized by lack of or freedom from representational qualities.
1915Forum (N.Y.) Dec. 665 This painter no doubt has tried to be significantly abstract. Ibid. 670 Dore shows an uninteresting abstract canvas. 1921A. Huxley Crome Yellow xii. 116 His work..[is] frightfully abstract now—frightfully abstract and frightfully intellectual. 1929C. Day Lewis Transitional Poem i. 16 The intellectual Quixotes of the age Prattling of abstract art. 1948H. Read Art Now 134 In practice we call ‘abstract’ all works of art which, though they may start from the artist's awareness of an object in the external world, proceed to make a self-consistent and independent aesthetic unity in no sense relying on an objective equivalence. 1948R. O. Dunlop Understanding Pictures iv. 42 The pure abstract picture in which all representation of objects, all extraneous subject-matter, was finally eliminated and the canvas contained only shapes, spaces, colours.
e. Of other art forms.
1877G. B. Shaw How to become Musical Critic (1960) 14 Detailed programs seem to be a complete mistake. They may impart a certain interest to a composition for those who are incapable of appreciating abstract music. 1890[see absolute music s.v. absolute]. 1957Listener 19 Dec. 1041/2 In poetry, as in painting, it is perhaps the abstract which is nowadays the easiest to do passably... Mr. Roy Fuller's competence and self-confidence as an abstract poet in the Auden manner are unquestionable. 1958Oxford Mail 23 Aug. 6/5 The music is thin, the ballet abstract in form and inventive in choreography. 1962Times 15 Jan. 14/5 Of all the common errors to do with ballet, none is now more common, or more erroneous, than that implied by the comparatively recent term ‘abstract ballet’.
5. absol. ‘The abstract,’ that which is abstract, the abstract consideration of things; the ideal.
1615Crooke Body of Man 45 They adde indeed a perfection, not to life, that is, to the concreate as we say, but to liuing, that is, to the abstract. 1628T. Spencer Logic 141 Justice in the abstract, is nothing. 1820W. Irving Sk. Bk. I. 47 She has no idea of poverty but in the abstract: she has only read of it in poetry.
6. Comb. abstract-concrete a., concerning both abstract and concrete aspects; abstract expressionism (orig. U.S.) (cf. sense A. 4 d) = action painting; hence abstract expressionist a. and n.; abstract impressionism (orig. U.S.), a form of painting which combines the characteristics of abstract art and impressionism; hence abstract impressionist a. and n.
1874J. Fiske Cosmic Philos. I. i. viii. 215 Molar physics, molecular physics, and chemistry, dealing with abstract laws of motion and force that are gained from experience of concrete phenomena, and appealing at every step to the concrete processes of observation and experiment, may be distinguished as abstract-concrete sciences. 1959Listener 2 July 26/2 The international idioms of pure Abstract, Abstract-Concrete, Tâchiste, Automatist, and all the rest. 1964Language XL. 249 The opposition ‘abstract-concrete’ as it is customarily used to characterize aphasic speech.
1952Amer. Artist Apr. 26 (title) From abstract expressionism to new objectivity. 1957B. S. Myers Art & Civiliz. 656 The New York school of Abstract Expressionism led by such artists as Jackson Pollock (1912–1956) and Willem de Kooning (b. 1904). 1958Observer 3 Aug. 11/7 William Johnstone's method has an increasing air of abstract-expressionist improvisation.
1957D. Cooper in Monet (Edin. Festival Catal.) 6 We..find the last works of Monet described as ‘abstract impressionism’, a label which serves the convenient purpose of immediately linking them with that tendency in contemporary painting for which the term ‘abstract expressionism’ has already been coined. 1958L. Alloway in Abstract Impressionism (Arts Council G.B.) 4/1 The term Abstract Impressionism seems to have been coined by Elaine De Kooning in 1951 at the Arts Club, 8th Street, New York. 1958Observer 15 June 15 Joan Mitchell's..painting..might indeed be called ‘abstract impressionist’. 1958Listener 9 Oct. 570/3 Humphrey Spender comes out as an accomplished abstract impressionist.
B. n. Something abstracted or drawn from others; hence,
1. ‘A smaller quantity containing the virtue or power of a greater’ (J.), or one thing concentrating in itself the virtues of several; a compendium.
1561T. N[orton] tr. Calvin's Inst. (1634) i. xiii. 57 So shall the Godhead of the Sonne bee an abstract from the essence of God, or a derivation out of a part of the whole. 1606Shakes. Ant. & Cl. i. iv. 9 You shall finde there a man, who is th' abstracts of all faults, That all men follow. 1677Hale Prim. Orig. Man. iv. viii. 362 He is an Abstract or Compendium of the greater World. 1836Gen. Thompson Exerc. IV. 127 The Peers are not an abstract, or at all events not a fair abstract, of the upper classes.
2. spec. A summary or epitome of a statement or document. Also attrib.
1528Gardiner in Pocock Rec. Ref. i. I. 117 We send herein enclosed, abstracts of such letters as hath been sent to the pope's holiness. 1715Burnet Hist. own Time (1766) II. 82 I will give you here a short abstract of all that was said. 1799Wellington Lett. (G.D.) I. 34 In the abstracts, it appears that the strength of the..forces consisted of 48,000 men. 1863Cox Inst. of Eng. Govt. Pref. 8 Copies or abstracts of State papers and records. 1867Smyth Sailors' Word-Bk. s.v. An abstract log contains the most important subjects of a ship's log. 1927[see abstractor]. 1959L. M. Harrod Librar. Gloss. (ed. 2) 12 Abstract. i. A form of current bibliography in which contributions to periodicals are summarized... When published in periodical form they are known as journals of abstracts. 2. The individual entry. 1962Lancet 19 May 1068/1 Have you ever tried doing abstracts? I once did—for about a year. It was the American articles that caused me the most anguish.
b. abstract of title (Law): An epitome of the evidences of ownership.
1858Ld. St. Leonards Property Law viii. 57 One great complaint at the present day, is the necessity of carrying back abstracts of title for sixty years.
3. An abstraction, an abstract term.
1530Palsgr. 50 All suche substantives..especially if they be suche as the logicians call abstractes. a1638Mede Apost. of latter Times 100 The Hebrewes use Abstracts for Concretes..as justitia pro justis: captivity for captives. 1765Tucker Lt. of Nat. I. 498 Our abstracts derive all originally from the concrete.
4. A work of art in the abstract style (see sense A. 4 d).
1950in Webster Add. 1958‘N. Blake’ Penknife in Heart ii. 30 The great mainsail curved up into the darkness, like a sculptured abstract. 1959House & Garden July 72 A whole lot of modern designs..included mechanically produced abstracts.
▪ II. abstract, v.|æbˈstrækt|
[f. abstract ppl. a., like content vb. f. content adj. After the appearance of the vb., abstract was used for some time as its pa. pple. till superseded by the normal abstracted.]
1. trans. To withdraw, deduct, remove, or take away (something); euphem. to take away secretly, slyly, or dishonestly; to purloin.
1542Boorde Dyetary (1870) xi. 258 The brande abstracted and abjected. 1549Compl. of Scotl. xv. 127 Thou suld abstrak thy inuectiue reprocha. 1588A. King P. Canisius' Catech. h vij, Giff ȝe sowld abstract vair fra 30. 1834H. Martineau Moral ii. 42 The public burdens, which at present abstract a large proportion of profits and wages. 1852Layard Nineveh ix. 233 The principal public quarrels related to property abstracted by the Arabs from one another's tents. 1872W. Black Adv. Phaeton vi. 72 Von Rosen had quietly abstracted the bearing-reins from the harness. 1880Geikie Phys. Geog. ii. 10. 68 When evaporation takes place, heat is abstracted by the vapour from the surface which evaporates.
b. absol. To deduct; to derogate; to take away.
1825–45Carlyle Schiller (ed. 2) ii. 97 There is throughout a certain air of stiffness and effort which abstracts from the theatrical illusion.
†c. Chem. To separate an essence or chemical principle by distillation, etc.; to extract. Obs.
1685Boyle (J.) Having dephlegmed spirit of salt, and gently abstracted the whole spirit, there remaineth in the retort a styptical substance. 1725Bradley Fam. Dict. s.v. Scurvy, From the fresh gather'd tops of Fir a little bruised, Abstract spirit of Wine or at least good Nants Brandy.
2. trans. To draw off or apart; to separate, withdraw, disengage from.
1557Paynell Barclay's Jugurtha 28 b, His mynde was abstract..from the defence of goodness and honesty vnto his olde vice. 1649Selden Laws of Eng. (1739) i. lv. 97 To abstract the mixed people each from other. 1663Cowley Of Solitude Wks. 1710 II. 696 The Importunities of Company or Business, which would abstract him from his Beloved [Poetry]. 1692Bentley Boyle Lect. vi. 212 They ought to abstract their Imagination from that false Infinite Extension, and conceive one Particle of Matter. 1756Burke Subl. & B. Wks. I. 262 Campanella..could so abstract his attention from any sufferings of his body that he was able to endure the rack itself without much pain.
b. absol. To withdraw (the attention), divert.
1823Lamb Elia (1865) Ser. ii. ii. 250 The healing influence of studious pursuits was upon him, to soothe and to abstract.
3. refl., and intr. with refl. meaning. To withdraw oneself, to retire from. lit. and fig.
1671True Non-Conformist 17 Desirous..that private men abstract from officious meddling. 1690Locke Hum. Underst. iv. iv. 8 Wks. 1727 I. 263 The Truth and Certainty of Moral Discourses abstracts from the Lives of Men. 1722Steele Consc. Lover ii. i. When I abstract myself from my own Interest in the thing.
b. abstracting from: withdrawing in thought from, leaving out of consideration, apart from. Obs. or arch.
1655Marquis of Worcester Cent. Inv. Dedic. ii. 16, Yet, abstracting from any Interest of my own, but as a Fellow-subject and Compatriot will I ever labour. 1667Decay of Chr. Piety v. §26. 240 Take her as mere Paynim, abstracting from the expectation of reward or punishment. 1679Jenison Narr. Pop. Plot 24 His Person (abstracting from his Crimes) having been always..dear to me. 1711C. M. Let. to Curat 95 Abstracting from..what was needful for humouring the thing, the Curat seldom speaks but in the words of the First-rate Divines. 1847De Quincey Secret Soc. Wks. 1863 VI. 254 Abstracting, however, from the violent disturbances of those stormy times..we may collect that the scheme of the Farrers was, etc.
4. To separate in mental conception; to consider apart from the material embodiment, or from particular instances.
1612Drayton Poly-olbion A 2 The verse oft..so infolds, that suddaine conceipt cannot abstract a forme of the clothed truth. c1690South Serm. (1715) I. 163 For the Vulgar have not such Logical Heads, as to be able to Abstract such subtile Conceptions. 1776Gibbon Decl. & F. I. xxi. 575 We may strive to abstract the notions of time, of space, and of matter. 1870Jevons Elem. Logic xxxii. 285 To abstract is to separate the qualities common to all individuals of a group from the peculiarities of each individual.
†5. To derive, to claim extraction for. Cf. abstract a. 1. Obs.
1610J. Guillim Displ. Her. (1660) i. vi. 38 Our understanding is informed from what Line of Consanguinity the Bearer of such difference doth abstract himselfe.
6. To make an abstract of; to summarize, epitomize; to abridge.
1678Quarles Arg. & Parth. 1 There dwelt that Virgin, that Arcadian glory, Whose rare composure did abstract the story Of true Perfection. 1743Franklin Let. Wks. 1840 VI. 17 That the business and duty of the Secretary be..to abstract, correct, and methodize such papers as require it. 1795Gibbon Auto-Biog. 46 This system I studied, and meditated, and abstracted. 1882Pall Mall G. 10 May 5/1 We cannot attempt to abstract the article here, but some salient points can be given. |