Absolute \Ab"so*lute\, a. [L. absolutus, p. p. of absolvere: cf.
F. absolu. See Absolve.]
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.
[1913 Webster]
2. Complete in itself; perfect; consummate; faultless; as,
absolute perfection; absolute beauty.
[1913 Webster]
So absolute she seems,
And in herself complete. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
4. Loosed from, or unconnected by, dependence on any other
being; self-existent; self-sufficing.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
5. Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone;
unconditioned; non-relative.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
To Cusa we can indeed articulately trace, word
and thing, the recent philosophy of the absolute.
--Sir W.
Hamilton.
[1913 Webster]
6. Positive; clear; certain; not doubtful. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
I am absolute 't was very Cloten. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
7. Authoritative; peremptory. [R.]
[1913 Webster]
The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head,
With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed. --Mrs.
Browning.
[1913 Webster]
8. (Chem.) Pure; unmixed; as, absolute alcohol.
[1913 Webster]
9. (Gram.) Not immediately dependent on the other parts of
the sentence in government; as, the case absolute. See
Ablative absolute, under Ablative.
[1913 Webster]
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. --Davies & Peck.
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[deg] centigrade or -459.4[deg] Fahrenheit.
[1913 Webster]
Syn: Positive; peremptory; certain; unconditional; unlimited;
unrestricted; unqualified; arbitrary; despotic;
autocratic.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Absolute \Ab"so*lute\, n. (Geom.)
In a plane, the two imaginary circular points at infinity; in
space of three dimensions, the imaginary circle at infinity.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
absolute
adj 1: perfect or complete or pure; "absolute loyalty"; "absolute
silence"; "absolute truth"; "absolute alcohol" [ant: relative]
2: complete and without restriction or qualification; sometimes
used informally as intensifiers; "absolute freedom"; "an
absolute dimwit"; "a downright lie"; "out-and-out mayhem";
"an out-and-out lie"; "a rank outsider"; "many right-down
vices"; "got the job through sheer persistence"; "sheer
stupidity" [syn: downright, out-and-out(a), rank(a),
right-down, sheer(a)]
3: not limited by law; "an absolute monarch"
4: expressing finality with no implication of possible change;
"an absolute (or unequivocal) quarantee to respect the
nation's authority"; "inability to make a conclusive (or
unequivocal) refusal" [syn: conclusive]
5: without conditions or limitations; "a total ban" [syn: total,
unconditioned]
6: not capable of being violated or infringed; "infrangible
human rights" [syn: infrangible, inviolable]
n : something that is conceived to be absolute; something that
does not depends on anything else and is beyond human
control; "no mortal being can influence the absolute"
WordNet (r) 2.0
439 Moby Thesaurus words for "absolute":
OK, absolutist, absolutistic, abstract, accurate, actual,
adducible, admissible, admitting no exception,
admitting no question, affirmative, affirmatory, all right,
all-embracing, all-encompassing, all-out, all-pervading,
all-powerful, almighty, alone, apodictic, arbitrary, aristocratic,
arrant, arrogant, ascendant, assertative, assertional, assertive,
assuring, attestative, attestive, autarchic, authentic,
authoritarian, authoritative, authorized, autocratic, autonomous,
azygous, bare, based on, beyond all praise, binding, born, bossy,
bound, boundless, broad-based, bureaucratic, categorical, celibate,
certain, circumstantial, civic, civil, clarified, classical, clean,
clear, clear and distinct, clear as day, clothed with authority,
commanding, competent, complete, comprehensive, compulsory,
conclusive, concrete, confirmable, congenital, consequential,
considerable, constitutional, consummate, controlling,
convictional, convincing, correct, crass, cumulative, damning,
de facto, dead right, decided, decisive, declarative, declaratory,
decretory, deep-dyed, defectless, defined, definite, definitive,
democratic, demonstrable, demonstratable, despotic, detailed,
determinate, determinative, dictated, dictatorial, different,
distilled, distinct, distinguished, documentary, documented,
dominant, domineering, downright, duly constituted,
dyed-in-the-wool, egregious, eminent, emphatic, empowered,
entailed, entire, esoteric, especial, eternal, evidential,
evidentiary, ex officio, ex parte, exceptional, exhaustive,
explicit, express, extraordinary, eye-witness, factual, fascist,
faultless, federal, federalist, federalistic, feudal, final,
finished, first and last, firsthand, fixed, flagrant, flat,
flat-out, flawless, for real, founded on, free, full, genuine,
glaring, global, governing, governmental, great, grinding, gross,
grounded on, gubernatorial, hard, hard-and-fast, haste, hearsay,
hegemonic, hegemonistic, heteronomous, high-handed, historical,
honest-to-God, ideal, illimitable, immaculate, impair, impeccable,
imperative, imperial, imperious, implicit, important, imposed,
impressive, inappealable, incontestable, incontrovertible,
indefectible, indefective, independent, indicative, indisputable,
individual, indubitable, ineluctable, inevitable, infallible,
infinite, influential, inner, intensive, intimate, intolerable,
irrefragable, irrefutable, irreproachable, irresistible,
irrevocable, just, just right, leading, letter-perfect, limitless,
lone, lordly, magisterial, magistral, mandated, mandatory,
masterful, material, matriarchal, matriarchic, meticulous, mighty,
minute, momentous, monarchal, monarchial, monarchic, monocratic,
must, naked, neat, necessary, no strings, noteworthy, nuncupative,
obligatory, odd, official, okay, oligarchal, oligarchic, omnibus,
omnipotent, omnipresent, one and only, only, only-begotten, open,
oppressive, out-and-out, outright, overbearing, overruling,
overwhelming, parliamentarian, parliamentary, particular,
patriarchal, patriarchic, peerless, peremptory, perfect,
perfectly sure, personal, persuasive, pervasive, plain, plenary,
plenipotentiary, plumb, pluralistic, political, positive, potent,
powerful, precious, precise, predestined, predetermined,
predicational, predicative, preeminent, prescript, prescriptive,
prestigious, presumptive, private, probative, profound, prominent,
pronounced, proper, provable, puissant, pure, purified, radical,
rank, ranking, real, rectified, regular, reliable, repressive,
republican, required, respective, right, round, ruling,
satisfactory, satisfying, self-evident, self-governing, senior,
several, severe, shattering, sheer, shocking, significant, simple,
singular, sinless, sole, solipsistic, sovereign, special, specific,
spotless, stainless, stark, stark-staring, straight, straight-out,
straight-up-and-down, strict, substantial, suggestive, superior,
superlative, suppressive, supreme, sure, sure-enough, surpassing,
sweeping, symptomatic, taintless, telling, testable, the veriest,
theocratic, thorough, thoroughgoing, through-and-through, total,
totalitarian, transcendent, transcendental, transparent, true,
tyrannical, tyrannous, ubiquitous, ultimate, unadulterated,
unalloyed, unambiguous, unanswerable, unbearable, unblemished,
unblended, unbound, unbounded, uncircumscribed, uncombined,
uncompounded, unconditional, unconditioned, unconfined,
unconfutable, unconscionable, unconstrained, uncontaminated,
uncorrupted, undeniable, undiluted, undoubting, unequivocal,
unfaultable, unflawed, unfortified, unhampered, unhesitating,
unimpeachable, unique, universal, univocal, unleavened, unlimited,
unmeasured, unmingled, unmistakable, unmitigated, unmixed,
unpaired, unqualified, unquestionable, unquestioning, unrefutable,
unrelieved, unrepeated, unreserved, unrestrained, unrestricted,
unsophisticated, unspoiled, unspotted, untainted, untinged,
unwaivable, utter, valid, verifiable, veritable, weighty, whole,
wholesale, wide-open, without appeal, without exception,
without reserve, without strings
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
ABSOLUTE. Without any condition or encumbrance, as an "absolute bond,"
simplex obligatio, in distinction from a conditional bond; an absolute
estate, one that is free from all manner of condition or incumbrance. A
rule is said to be absolute, when, on the hearing, it is confirmed. As to
the effect of an absolute conveyance, see 1 Pow. Mortg. 125; in relation to
absolute rights, 1 Chitty, Pl. 364; 1 Chitty, Pr. 32.
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
ABSOLUTE, adj. Independent, irresponsible. An absolute monarchy is
one in which the sovereign does as he pleases so long as he pleases
the assassins. Not many absolute monarchies are left, most of them
having been replaced by limited monarchies, where the sovereign's
power for evil (and for good) is greatly curtailed, and by republics,
which are governed by chance.
THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993)
|
|
|