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Absolute   /ˈæbsəlˌut/   Listen
adjective
Absolute  adj.  
1.
Loosed from any limitation or condition; uncontrolled; unrestricted; unconditional; as, absolute authority, monarchy, sovereignty, an absolute promise or command; absolute power; an absolute monarch.
2.
Complete in itself; perfect; consummate; faultless; as, absolute perfection; absolute beauty. "So absolute she seems, And in herself complete."
3.
Viewed apart from modifying influences or without comparison with other objects; actual; real; opposed to relative and comparative; as, absolute motion; absolute time or space. Note: Absolute rights and duties are such as pertain to man in a state of nature as contradistinguished from relative rights and duties, or such as pertain to him in his social relations.
4.
Loosed from, or unconnected by, dependence on any other being; self-existent; self-sufficing. Note: In this sense God is called the Absolute by the Theist. The term is also applied by the Pantheist to the universe, or the total of all existence, as only capable of relations in its parts to each other and to the whole, and as dependent for its existence and its phenomena on its mutually depending forces and their laws.
5.
Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned; non-relative. Note: It is in dispute among philosopher whether the term, in this sense, is not applied to a mere logical fiction or abstraction, or whether the absolute, as thus defined, can be known, as a reality, by the human intellect. "To Cusa we can indeed articulately trace, word and thing, the recent philosophy of the absolute."
6.
Positive; clear; certain; not doubtful. (R.) "I am absolute 't was very Cloten."
7.
Authoritative; peremptory. (R.) "The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head, With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed."
8.
(Chem.) Pure; unmixed; as, absolute alcohol.
9.
(Gram.) Not immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence in government; as, the case absolute. See Ablative absolute, under Ablative.
Absolute curvature (Geom.), that curvature of a curve of double curvature, which is measured in the osculating plane of the curve.
Absolute equation (Astron.), the sum of the optic and eccentric equations.
Absolute space (Physics), space considered without relation to material limits or objects.
Absolute terms. (Alg.), such as are known, or which do not contain the unknown quantity.
Absolute temperature (Physics), the temperature as measured on a scale determined by certain general thermo-dynamic principles, and reckoned from the absolute zero.
Absolute zero (Physics), the be ginning, or zero point, in the scale of absolute temperature. It is equivalent to -273° centigrade or -459.4° Fahrenheit.
Synonyms: Positive; peremptory; certain; unconditional; unlimited; unrestricted; unqualified; arbitrary; despotic; autocratic.


noun
Absolute  n.  (Geom.) In a plane, the two imaginary circular points at infinity; in space of three dimensions, the imaginary circle at infinity.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Absolute" Quotes from Famous Books



... Newfoundland dog, to the end of the voyage. The friends of this lady—the first woman who descended the great rivers of the West in a steamboat—used every argument they could offer to dissuade her from undertaking what was considered a dangerous experiment, an absolute folly. The good wife, however, clung to her husband, and accepted the risks, preferring to be drowned or blown up, as her friends predicted, rather than to desert her better- half in his hour of trial. A few weeks would decide his success or failure, ...
— Four Months in a Sneak-Box • Nathaniel H. Bishop
... him standing before the fire, with that look upon his face which I had seen only once or twice in our acquaintance—a look which I may call an absolute concatenation of inductive and deductive ratiocination—from which all that was human, tender, or sympathetic was absolutely discharged. He was simply an icy algebraic symbol! Indeed, his whole being was concentrated to that extent that his clothes fitted loosely, ...
— New Burlesques • Bret Harte
... the city walls, it was not under the jurisdiction of the city authorities. Farrant probably did not anticipate any interference on the part of the Common Council with the royal choristers "practicing" their plays in order "to yield Her Majesty recreation and delight," yet the absolute certainty of being free from the adverse legislation of the London authorities was not to be ignored. Moreover, the precinct was now the home of many noblemen and wealthy gentlemen, and Farrant probably thought that, as one of the most fashionable residential districts ...
— Shakespearean Playhouses - A History of English Theatres from the Beginnings to the Restoration • Joseph Quincy Adams
... expressive pantomimic gestures of the South. You are placed on the horns of a dilemma: give, and the report that a generous and fabulously wealthy Signore has arrived in Amalfi will run like wild-fire through the whole place, and your life in consequence will become an absolute burden for the remainder of your sojourn in this spot. Refuse, and the wretches who have hitherto been wheedling and cringing at your heels, will at once grow insolent and threatening, especially ...
— The Naples Riviera • Herbert M. Vaughan
... no coal to run out of, since electricity is its mechanical force; no collisions to fear, because it navigates the watery deep all by itself; no storms to brave, because just a few meters beneath the waves, it finds absolute tranquility! There, sir. There's the ideal ship! And if it's true that the engineer has more confidence in a craft than the builder, and the builder more than the captain himself, you can understand the utter abandon with which I place my trust in this Nautilus, since I'm ...
— 20000 Leagues Under the Seas • Jules Verne


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