abstract :

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abstract

ab strakt

  • n  a concept or idea not associated with any specific instance
    he loved her only in the abstract--not in person
  • n  a sketchy summary of the main points of an argument or theory
  • v  consider a concept without thinking of a specific example; consider abstractly or theoretically
  • v  make off with belongings of others
  • v  consider apart from a particular case or instance
    Let's abstract away from this particular example
  • v  give an abstract (of)
  • a  existing only in the mind; separated from embodiment
    abstract words like `truth' and `justice'
  • s  not representing or imitating external reality or the objects of nature
    a large abstract painting
  • s  dealing with a subject in the abstract without practical purpose or intention
    abstract reasoning
    abstract science

  • Wassily Kandinsky was one of the first modern artists to put abstraction into the visual vocabulary of 20th century painting.
  • The abstract drawing After a Drawing From the Year 1919, for example, reduces an air attack on a boat to bare lines and geometrical shapes.
  • IT is not easy to find meaning amid the drips and daubs, splashes and swirls of contemporary abstract painting.
News & Articles

Quotes

  • Barack Obama in CNN International
    I will seek somebody with a sharp and independent mind and a record of excellence and integrity,he said in May 2009, just before he chose Sonia Sotomayor. "I will seek someone who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal...
  • Anthony Kennedy in The Associated Press
    The patent application here can be rejected under our precedents on the unpatentability of abstract ideas,Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the court. "The court, therefore, need not define further what constitutes a patentable process."
  • Sonia Sotomayor in Wall Street Journal Blogs (blog)
    Sotomayor answered, "I can't answer that in the abstract:That question wouldn't come to me as a citizen. It would come to me as a judge, in the context of some action someone is taking."

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