abstract

Universal Words adjective, noun, verb adjective 1 based on general ideas and not on any particular real person, thing or situation: abstract knowledge / principles * The research shows that pre-school children are capable of thinking in abstract terms. compareCONCRETEadj.(2) 2 existing in thought or as an idea but not having a physical reality: We may talk of beautiful things but beauty itself is abstract. 3 (of art) not representing people or things in a realistic way, but expressing the artist's ideas about them: the work of American abstract expressionists like Mark Rothko compareFIGURATIVE(2), REPRESENTATIONAL abstractly adverb noun 1 an abstract work of art: Kandinsky's first pure abstracts are marked by their wild colour. 2 a short piece of writing containing the main ideas in a document SYNSUMMARY IDIOMS in the abstract in a general way, without referring to a particular real person, thing or situation: Legal questions rarely exist in the abstract; they are based on real cases. * I'm just talking in the abstract now. verb [VN] 1 ~ sth (from sth) to remove sth from somewhere: She abstracted the main points from the argument. * a plan to abstract 8 million gallons of water from the river 2 (technical) to make a written summary of a book, etc.