Ab‐stract″ (�), v. t. [imp. & p. p.Abstracted; p. pr. & vb. n.Abstracting.] [See Abstract, a.]
1. To withdraw; to separate; to take away.
He was incapable of forming any opinion or resolution abstracted from his own prejudices.
Sir W. Scott.
2. To draw off in respect to interest or attention; as, his was wholly abstracted by other objects.
The young stranger had been abstracted and silent.
Blackw. Mag.
3. To separate, as ideas, by the operation of the mind; to consider by itself; to contemplate separately, as a quality or attribute. Whately.
4. To epitomize; to abridge. Franklin.
5. To take secretly or dishonestly; to purloin; as, to abstract goods from a parcel, or money from a till.
Von Rosen had quietly abstracted the bearing-reins from the harness.
W. Black.
6. (Chem.) To separate, as the more volatile or soluble parts of a substance, by distillation or other chemical processes. In this sense extract is now more generally used.