All 20 Uses
abstract
in
The Plague
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- My notions on the subject were purely abstract, and I'd never given it serious thought.
Part 4 *abstract = a concept or idea not associated with any specific instance
- You're using the language of reason, not of the heart; you live in a world of abstractions.†
Part 2
- But was he right in reproaching him, Rieux, with living in a world of abstractions?†
Part 2
- Could that term "abstraction" really apply to these days he spent in his hospital while the plague was battening on the town, raising its death-toll to five hundred victims a week?†
Part 2
- Yes, an element of abstraction, of a divorce from reality, entered into such calamities.†
Part 2
- Still when abstraction sets to killing you, you've got to get busy with it.†
Part 2
- Then indeed began "abstraction" and a tussle with the family, who knew they would not see the sick man again until he was dead or cured.†
Part 2
- Then came a second phase of conflict, tears and pleadings-abstraction, in a word.†
Part 2
- And every evening mothers wailed thus, with a distraught abstraction, as their eyes fell on those fatal stigmata on limbs and bellies; every evening hands gripped Rieux's arms, there was a rush of useless words, promises, and tears; every evening the nearing tocsin of the ambulance provoked scenes as vain as every form of grief.†
Part 2
- Yes, plague, like abstraction, was monotonous; perhaps only one factor changed, and that was Rieux himself.†
Part 2 *
- To fight abstraction you must have something of it in your own make-up.†
Part 2
- Abstraction for him was all that stood in the way of his happiness.†
Part 2
- But he knew, too, that abstraction sometimes proves itself stronger than happiness; and then, if only then, it has to be taken into account.†
Part 2
- Thus he was enabled to follow, and on a different plane, the dreary struggle in progress between each man's happiness and the abstractions of the plague-which constituted the whole life of our town over a long period of time.†
Part 2
- But where some saw abstraction others saw the truth.†
Part 2
- When I entered this profession, I did it 'abstractedly,' so to speak; because I had a desire for it, because it meant a career like another, one that young men often aspire to.†
Part 2
- Whereas in the early days of the plague they had been struck by the host of small details that, while meaning absolutely nothing to others, meant so much to them personally, and thus had realized, perhaps for the first time, the uniqueness of each man's life; now, on the other hand, they took an interest only in what interested everyone else, they had only general ideas, and even their tenderest affections now seemed abstract, items of the common stock.†
Part 3
- But hitherto they had felt its abomination in, so to speak, an abstract way; they had never had to witness over so long a period the death-throes of an innocent child.†
Part 4
- Yes, he'd make a fresh start, once the period of "abstractions" was over, and with any luck— He was opening the door with these thoughts in his mind when he saw his mother coming down the hall to meet him.†
Part 5
- For even Rambert felt a nervous tremor at the thought that soon he would have to confront a love and a devotion that the plague months had slowly refined to a pale abstraction, with the flesh-and-blood woman who had given rise to them.†
Part 5
Definitions:
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(1)
(abstract as in: abstract thought) of a concept or idea not associated with any specific instance
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(2)
(abstract as in: read the abstract) a summary; or to summarize -- especially academic writing
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(3)
(abstract as in: abstract art) not imitating external reality or the objects of nature
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(4)
(abstracted as in: abstracted, so didn't notice) lost in thought; or distracted by thoughts
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(5)
(abstracted as in: abstracted his wallet) removed
- (6) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)