Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word absent. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word absent, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say absent in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word absent you have here. The definition of the word absent will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofabsent, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Tom was there, but he seemed absent and withdrawn. Normally he is quite present [= engaged] during a meeting.
1746-1747, Chesterfield, Letters to his Son:
What is commonly called an absent man is commonly either a very weak or a very affected man.
1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide:
For days Ailie had an absent eye and a sad face, and it so fell out that in all that time young Heriotside, who had scarce missed a day, was laid up with a broken arm and never came near her.
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1919, “State vs. Britt, Supreme Court of Missouri, Division 2”, in The Southwestern Reporter, page 427:
If the accused refuse upon demand to pay money or deliver property (absent any excuse or excusing circumstance) which came into his hands as a bailee, such refusal might well constitute some evidence of conversion, with the requisite fraudulent intent required by the statute.
2011, David Elstein, London Review of Books, volume 33, number 15:
the Princess Caroline case […] established that – absent a measurable ‘public interest’ in publication – she was safe from being photographed while out shopping.
2013, Stephen K. Wegren, “Agriculture”, in Stephen K. Wegren, editor, Return to Putin's Russia: Past Imperfect, Future Uncertain, 5th edition, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., →ISBN, page 223:
About 25 percent of Russia’s large farms continue to be unprofitable, and that number would be considerably higher absent government subsidies and assistance programs.
2019 September 5, Ian Bogost, “I tried to limit my screen time (It didn't go well)”, in The Atlantic:
And the distraction-management software Freedom offers a mode that won’t unlock affected apps absent a telephone-support call.
2020, Anu Bradford, “8. Is the Brussels Effect Beneficial?”, in The Brussels Effect. How the European Union Rules the World, Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 258:
California cannot promulgate regulations that are inconsistent with US federal laws absent an explicit waiver from the federal government.
If after due summons any member absents himself, he is to be fined.
1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm, London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:
This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.
1986 December 7, Marcos Bisticas-Cocoves, “Just the Facts, Miss Thing”, in Gay Community News, volume 14, number 21, page 1:
Some people expect that the news should be written "professionally," that it should conform to certain "journalistic standards," and that it should not "editorialize." And this is tantamount to saying it should be written objectively, that we should absent ourselves when writing copy.
1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost., London: [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker; nd by Robert Boulter; nd Matthias Walker,, →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books:, London: Basil Montagu Pickering, 1873, →OCLC:
The iron rule of the plantation, always passionately and violently enforced in that neighborhood, makes flogging the penalty of failing to be in the field before sunrise in the morning, unless special permission be given to the absenting slave.
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
^ Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 , →ISBN), page 6
From Old Frenchausent, relatinized on the model of its ancestor, Latinabsēns(“absent, missing”), present active participle of absum, abesse(“be away, be absent”).
Marek Kunicki-Goldfinger (29.09.2014) “ABSENT”, in Elektroniczny Słownik Języka Polskiego XVII i XVIII Wieku [Electronic Dictionary of the Polish Language of the XVII and XVIII Century]