absent

Formsabsenter, absentest

Formsabsents, absenting, absented

Pluralabsents

1. 1
   adjective

   Away from a place where one would normally be; not present.

   Several committee members were absent when the vote was taken.

   He remained absent throughout the entire negotiation.

   Similaraway, missing, gone

   Oppositepresent

   Note

   Behind it is a Latin present participle: absens, from absum, "to be away from", built from ab "away" and sum "to be". That literal being-away is still the core of the word. It usually takes from (absent from class), and its plain opposite is present. Shakespeare's "absent friends" in All's Well That Ends Well shows how naturally it also sits before a noun.

2. 2
   adjective

   Not present in something; entirely lacking.

   Empathy was entirely absent from his cold reply.

   The mineral is absent from rocks of this region.

   Similarlacking, missing, nonexistent, wanting

   Oppositeexisting, present

   Note

   Here nothing is waiting elsewhere to come back. The thing is not there at all. That is the difference from the "away from a place" meaning, where the missing person or object still exists somewhere. Its opposites include existing and extant. It suits descriptive reports: a body part rudimentary or absent in some specimens, signs of forced entry absent from a scene.

3. 3
   adjective

   Inattentive to what is happening; lost in thought and preoccupied.

   He seemed absent during the whole meeting, nodding at nothing.

   She gave an absent wave without ever looking up from her book.

   Similardistracted, preoccupied, abstracted, faraway, vacant

   Oppositepresent

   Note

   The figurative step from body to mind: someone can be in the room yet absent in attention. Unlike the physical sense, it is gradable, with the forms absenter and absentest, and it sits comfortably before a noun. Chesterfield's Letters to his Son speaks of "an absent man", and John Buchan in 1902 gives Ailie "an absent eye". Absent-minded is the everyday equivalent.

4. 4
   verbreflexivetransitive

   To keep oneself away from a place or gathering.

   She chose to absent herself from the awkward family reunion.

   Several diplomats absented themselves from the controversial vote.

   Similarexcuse, remove, withdraw

   Note

   The verb comes by its own road. It goes back to Late Latin absentare, "keep away, be away", through Old French absenter. In current English it is reflexive: one absents oneself, usually from something. Addison in 1705 fines the member who "absents himself", and George Orwell's animals lose half their rations for it. Because of the reflexive, it describes a chosen withdrawal rather than mere staying away.

5. 5
   preposition

   Without; in the absence of.

   Absent a clear policy, managers ended up making their own rules.

   Absent strong demand, the company cut production sharply.

   Similarwithout

   Note

   A preposition that does the work of in the absence of, usually at the head of a condition: absent government subsidies, absent any excuse. Its natural home is legal and analytical prose. The 1919 Missouri case State vs. Britt uses it in The Southwestern Report, and David Elstein in the London Review of Books (2011) applies it to a privacy ruling. It takes a bare noun phrase, with no of.

6. 6
   nounwith the

   Something that is not present, especially the people who are away collectively.

   At the reunion, we raised a glass to the absent.

   The roll call counted the present and noted the absent.

   Oppositepresent

   Note

   An adjective turned into a collective noun. It needs the: the absent, as in Cecil Day Lewis's "yearning for the absent" (1947). Like the poor or the brave, it names a group without a plural ending. Frances Burney in 1772 writes of "the Absent" who could not believe the applause. For one missing person, English now uses absentee.

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