Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Abstract \Ab"stract`\, n. [See {Abstract}, a.]
   1. That which comprises or concentrates in itself the
      essential qualities of a larger thing or of several
      things. Specifically: A summary or an epitome, as of a
      treatise or book, or of a statement; a brief.

            An abstract of every treatise he had read. --Watts.

            Man, the abstract Of all perfection, which the
            workmanship Of Heaven hath modeled.   --Ford.

   2. A state of separation from other things; as, to consider a
      subject in the abstract, or apart from other associated
      things.

   3. An abstract term.

            The concretes ``father'' and ``son'' have, or might
            have, the abstracts ``paternity'' and ``filiety.''
                                                  --J. S. Mill.

   4. (Med.) A powdered solid extract of a vegetable substance
      mixed with sugar of milk in such proportion that one part
      of the abstract represents two parts of the original
      substance.

   {Abstract of title} (Law), an epitome of the evidences of
      ownership.

   Syn: Abridgment; compendium; epitome; synopsis. See
        {Abridgment}.