abstinence

act or practice of refraining from indulging an appetite ; the trait of abstaining (especially from alcohol) ;

abstinent

a person who refrains from drinking intoxicating beverages ;

abstract

a concept or idea not associated with any specific instance; "he loved her only in the abstract--not in person" ; a sketchy summary of the main points of an argument or theory ;

abstract art

an abstract genre of art; artistic content depends on internal form rather than pictorial representation ;

abstract artist

a painter of abstract pictures ;

abstract entity

an entity that exists only abstractly ;

abstract expressionism

a New York school of painting characterized by freely created abstractions; the first important school of American painting to develop independently of European styles ;

abstract thought

thinking that is coherent and logical ;

abstractedness

preoccupation with something to the exclusion of all else ;

abstracter

one who makes abstracts or summarizes information ;

abstraction

a general concept formed by extracting common features from specific examples ; the act of withdrawing or removing something ; an abstract painting ; preoccupation with something to the exclusion of all else ; the process of formulating general concepts by abstracting common properties of instances ; a concept or idea not associated with any specific instance; "he loved her only in the abstract--not in person" ;

abstractionism

an abstract genre of art; artistic content depends on internal form rather than pictorial representation ; a representation having no reference to concrete objects or specific examples ;

abstractionist

a painter of abstract pictures ;

abstractness

the quality of being considered apart from a specific instance or object ;

abstractor

one who makes abstracts or summarizes information ;

abstruseness

the quality of being unclear or abstruse and hard to understand ; wisdom that is recondite and abstruse and profound; "the anthropologist was impressed by the reconditeness of the native proverbs" ;

abstrusity

wisdom that is recondite and abstruse and profound; "the anthropologist was impressed by the reconditeness of the native proverbs" ;

absurd

a situation in which life seems irrational and meaningless; "The absurd is the essential concept and the first truth"--Albert Camus ;

absurdity

a ludicrous folly; "the crowd laughed at the absurdity of the clown's behavior" ; a message whose content is at variance with reason ;

absurdness

a message whose content is at variance with reason ;

abu ali al-husain ibn abdallah ibn sina

Arabian physician and influential Islamic philosopher; his interpretation of Aristotle influenced St. Thomas Aquinas; writings on medicine were important for almost 500 years (980-1037) ;

abu dhabi

a sheikhdom of eastern Arabia and capital of the United Arab Emirates ;

abu hafs al-masri brigades

a terrorist group that has worked with Al Qaeda; claimed responsibility for attacks in Iraq and Turkey ;

abu nidal organization

a Palestinian international terrorist organization that split from the PLO in 1974; has conducted terrorist attacks in 20 countries; "in the 1980s the Fatah-RC was considered the most dangerous and murderous Palestinian terror group" ;

abu sayyaf

a small gang of terrorist thugs claiming to seek a separate Islamic state for the Muslim minority in the Philippines; uses bombing and assassination and extortion and kidnapping; "In 2001 Abu Sayyaf kidnapped twenty people and beheaded one of the American captives" ;

abudefduf

damsel fishes ;

abudefduf saxatilis

large blue-grey black-striped damselfish; nearly worldwide ;

abuja

capital of Nigeria in the center of the country ;

abukir

a bay on the Mediterranean Sea in northern Egypt ;

abukir bay

a bay on the Mediterranean Sea in northern Egypt ;

abul-walid mohammed ibn-ahmad ibn-mohammed ibn-roshd

Arabian philosopher born in Spain; wrote detailed commentaries on Aristotle that were admired by the Schoolmen (1126-1198) ;

abulia

a loss of will power ;

abundance

the property of a more than adequate quantity or supply; "an age of abundance" ; (chemistry) the ratio of the total mass of an element in the earth's crust to the total mass of the earth's crust; expressed as a percentage or in parts per million ; (physics) the ratio of the number of atoms of a specific isotope of an element to the total number of isotopes present ;

abuse

cruel or inhumane treatment ; improper or excessive use ; a rude expression intended to offend or hurt; "when a student made a stupid mistake he spared them no abuse"; "they yelled insults at the visiting team" ;

abuser

someone who abuses ;

abutilon

herbs or shrubs or small trees: flowering maple; parlor maple; Indian mallow ;

abutilon theophrasti

tall annual herb or subshrub of tropical Asia having velvety leaves and yellow flowers and yielding a strong fiber; naturalized in southeastern Europe and United States ;

abutment

a masonry support that touches and directly receives thrust or pressure of an arch or bridge ; point of contact between two objects or parts ;

abutment arch

an arch supported by an abutment ;

abutter

the owner of contiguous property ;