Absent

• POS: Adjective, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)
• HYPHEN: ab=sent

CIDE DICTIONARY

Absent, a. [F., fr. absens, absentis, p. pr. of abesse to be away from; ab + esse to be. Cf. Sooth.].

•  Being away from a place; withdrawn from a place; not present.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  Not existing; lacking; as, the part was rudimental or absent.  [1913 Webster]
•  Inattentive to what is passing; absent-minded; preoccupied; as, an absent air.  [1913 Webster]

  "What is commonly called an absent man is commonly either a very weak or a very affected man."  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Absent, Abstracted.

Absent, v. t. [Cf. F. absenter.].

•  To take or withdraw (one's self) to such a distance as to prevent intercourse; -- used with the reflexive pronoun.  [1913 Webster]

  "If after due summons any member absents himself, he is to be fined."  [1913 Webster]
•  To withhold from being present.  Milton.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Absent, adj. & v.
--adj.
1 a not present. b (foll. by from) not present at or in.
2 not existing.
3 inattentive to the matter in hand.
--v.refl.
1 stay away.
2 withdraw.

Derivative

absently adv. (in sense 3 of adj.).

Etymology

ME ult. f. L absent- pres. part. of abesse be absent

DEVIL DICTIONARY

Absent

adj. Peculiarly exposed to the tooth of detraction; vilifed; hopelessly in the wrong; superseded in the consideration and affection of another.

To men a man is but a mind. Who cares
What face he carries or what form he wears?
But woman's body is the woman. O,
Stay thou, my sweetheart, and do never go,
But heed the warning words the sage hath said:
A woman absent is a woman dead.
Jogo Tyree

THESAURUS

Absent

absconded, absentminded, absorbed, abstracted, away, bemused, castle-building, daydreaming, daydreamy, deficient, deleted, departed, disappeared, distrait, dreaming, dreamy, drowsing, ecstatic, elsewhere, engrossed, faraway, forgetful, gone, half-awake, heedless, in a reverie, in the clouds, keep away from, lacking, lost, lost in thought, meditative, missing, mooning, moonraking, museful, musing, napping, no longer present, nodding, nonattendant, nonexistent, not found, not present, oblivious, off, omitted, out, out of sight, pensive, pipe-dreaming, preoccupied, rapt, somewhere else, stargazing, subtracted, taken away, taken up, transported, unconscious, vanished, wanting, withdraw from, woolgathering, wrapped in thought

ROGET THESAURUS

Absent

Inexistence

N inexistence, nonexistence, nonsubsistence, nonentity, nil, negativeness, nullity, nihility, nihilism, tabula rasa, blank, abeyance, absence, no such thing, nonbeing, nothingness, oblivion, annihilation, extinction, extinguishment, extirpation, Nirvana, obliteration, inexistent, nonexistent, negative, blank, missing, omitted, absent, insubstantial, shadowy, spectral, visionary, unreal, potential, virtual, baseless, in nubibus, unsubstantial, vain, unborn, uncreated, unbegotten, unconceived, unproduced, unmade, perished, annihilated extinct, exhausted, gone, lost, vanished, departed, gone with the wind, defunct, fabulous, ideal, supposititious &c, negatively, virtually, non ens.

Absence

N absence, inexistence, nonresidence, absenteeism, nonattendance, alibi, emptiness, void, vacuum, vacuity, vacancy, tabula rasa, exemption, hiatus, lipotype, truant, absentee, nobody, nobody present, nobody on earth, not a soul, ame qui vive, absent, not present, away, nonresident, gone, from home, missing, lost, wanting, omitted, nowhere to be found, inexistence, empty, void, vacant, vacuous, untenanted, unoccupied, uninhabited, tenantless, barren, sterile, desert, deserted, devoid, uninhabitable, without, minus, nowhere, elsewhere, neither here nor there, in default of, sans, behind one's back, the bird has flown, non est inventus, absence makes the heart grow fonder, absent in body but present in spirit, absento nemo ne nocuisse velit, Achilles absent was Achilles still, aux absents les os, briller par son absence, conspicuous by his absence, in the hope to meet shortly again and make our abs.

Incogitancy

N incogitancy, vacancy, inunderstanding, fatuity thoughtlessness, vacuity, couch potato, vegetable, vacant, unintellectual, unideal, unoccupied, unthinking, inconsiderate, thoughtless, mindless, no-brain, vacuous, absent, diverted, irrational narrow-minded, unthought of, undreamt 'of, unconsidered, off one's mind, incogitable, not to be thought of, absence d'esprit, pabulum pictura pascit inani.

Inattention

N inattention, inconsideration, inconsiderateness, oversight, inadvertence, inadvertency, nonobservance, disregard, supineness, etourderie, want of thought, heedlessness, insouciance, abstraction, absence of mind, absorption of mind, preoccupation, distraction, reverie, brown study, deep musing, fit of abstraction, inattentive, unobservant, unmindful, heedless, unthinking, unheeding, undiscerning, inadvertent, mindless, regardless, respectless, listless, blind, deaf, bird-witted, hand over head, cursory, percursory, giddy-brained, scatter-brained, hare-brained, unreflective, unreflecting, ecervele, offhand, dizzy, muzzy, brainsick, giddy, giddy as a goose, wild, harum-scarum, rantipole, highflying, heedless, careless, inconsiderate, thoughtless, absent, abstracted, distrait, absentminded, lost, lost in thought, wrapped in thought, rapt, in the clouds, bemused, dreaming on other things, musing on other things, preoccupied, engrossed, daydreaming, in a reverie, off one's guard, napping, dreamy, caught napping, disconcerted, distracted, put out, inattentively, inadvertently, absent-mindedly, per incuriam, sub silentio, Int, stand at ease, stand easy!, the attention wanders, one's wits gone a woolgathering, one's wits gone a bird's nesting, it never entered into one's head, the mind running on other things, one's thoughts being elsewhere, had it been a bear it would have bitten you.