Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Not present; missing: absent friends; absent parents.
- adj. Not existent; lacking: a country in which morality is absent.
- adj. Exhibiting or feeling inattentiveness: an absent nod.
- v. To keep (oneself) away: They absented themselves from the debate.
- prep. Without: "Absent a legislative fix, this is an invitation for years of litigation” ( Brian E. O'Neill).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Not in a certain place at a given time; not in consciousness or thought at a certain time; away: opposed to present.
- Not existing; wanting; not forming a part or attribute of: as, among them refinement is absent; revenge is entirely absent from his mind.
- Absent-minded (which see).
- n. One who is not present; an absentee.
- To make absent; take or keep away: now used only reflexively, but formerly sometimes otherwise, as by Milton: as, to absent one's self from home; he absented himself from the meeting.
Wiktionary
- adj. Being away from a place; withdrawn from a place; not present.
- adj. Not existing; lacking.
- adj. Inattentive to what is passing; absent-minded; preoccupied.
- prep. Without.
- v. To go away from a place; to leave.
- v. To withhold from being present
- adj. Being away from a place; withdrawn from a place; not present.
- adj. Not existing; lacking.
- adj. Inattentive to what is passing; absent-minded; preoccupied.
- prep. Without.
- v. To go away from a place; to leave.
- v. To withhold from being present
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Being away from a place; withdrawn from a place; not present.
- adj. Not existing; lacking.
- adj. Inattentive to what is passing; absent-minded; preoccupied.
- v. To take or withdraw (one's self) to such a distance as to prevent intercourse; -- used with the reflexive pronoun.
- v. To withhold from being present.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. lost in thought; showing preoccupation
- adj. not being in a specified place
- adj. nonexistent.
- v. go away or leave
Etymologies
- Middle English, from Old French, from Latin absēns, absent-, present participle of abesse, to be away : ab-, away; see ab-1 + esse, to be; see es- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“Such a Nootka word, for instance, as when, as they say, he had been absent for four days might be expected to embody at least three radical elements corresponding to the concepts of absent, four, and day.”
“Where this is absent, art is absent, _precisely because pure intuition is absent_, and we have at the most, in exchange for it, _that reflex_, philosophical, historical, or scientific.”
“Their _vis-à-vis_ is a lively lady, apparently taking stock of a _bouquet_, but, in reality, joking an absent gentleman, opposite: -- it is Miss Gay, whom Lark (her partner) is making laugh, by observing -- the gentleman is not so _absent_ as he ought to be; causing that lady to forget herself -- making many mistakes and false starts; which, being those of a person who knew better, were very diverting.”
“_absent_ from the Gospels: death is not a bridge, not a passing; it is absent because it belongs to a quite different, a merely apparent world, useful only as a symbol.”
“The Pakistan players at the centre of the spot‑fixing scandal that rocked cricket will remain absent from the sport indefinitely, after two of the trio today had appeals against their provisional suspensions turned down.”
The Guardian: Shamed Pakistan players remain suspended after ICC rejects appeals
“For the first time now, with her name absent from the Boston papers for two days in a row, she wondered what would happen if two days became three, then five, then ten.”
“Molly herself is absent from the story, away in New York, and has offered her house to our narrator so that she may have some peace and comfort in which to get to grips with a recalcitrant new play.”
“Further, the question was an add-on, obviously asked later and in a different context because it is absent from the interview transcript.”
The Volokh Conspiracy » Judge Reinhardt’s Dig on Sarah Palin
“Its particularly ironic considering these are people normally (or heretofore anyway) absent from the political debate, but now they are strongly involved.”
“Conspicuously absent from the list of drugs which cause these deaths is marijuana (Cannabis).”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘absent’.
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words that describe me
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Neither here nor there.
Not sure where.
sarra apparently already had this on my 'miscellanea' list - was it for the reason I wanted to add it now, though? Listed in the sense of being an equivalent part of speech to 'without'. The interesting part is that, like 'less' used in this sense, it (edit: sometimes? My example contradicts this!) seems to imply an active taking-away. Sort of a continuum: without–absent–less. Hmm!
examples for clarification:
"absent any sense of morality" (synonym: 'lacking', pronunciation: /əb'sent/, /æb'sent/)
"£40 less a £10 discount" (synonym: 'minus', prosody de-emphasises the 'less' as it would if it were replaced by 'minus' - try it) Sep 1, 2011