01 a. Loosed from any limitation or condition; uncontrolled; unrestricted; unconditional; as, absolute authority, monarchy, sovereignty, an absol…
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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.
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2.
Complete in itself; perfect; consummate; faultless; as, absolute perfection; absolute beauty.“So absolute she seems, And in herself complete.” — Milton.
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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.
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4.
Loosed from, or unconnected by, dependence on any other being; self-existent; self-sufficing.
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5.
Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned; non-relative.“To Cusa we can indeed articulately trace, word and thing, the recent philosophy of the absolute.” — Sir W. Hamilton.
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6.
Positive; clear; certain; not doubtful.[R.]“I am absolute 't was very Cloten.” — Shak.
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7.
Authoritative; peremptory.[R.]“The peddler stopped, and tapped her on the head, With absolute forefinger, brown and ringed.” — Mrs. Browning.
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8.
Pure; unmixed; as, absolute alcohol.(Chem.)
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9.
Not immediately dependent on the other parts of the sentence in government; as, the case absolute. See Ablative absolute, under Ablative.(Gram.) See: Ablative
Phrases & compounds
Absolute curvature —
that curvature of a curve of double curvature, which is measured in the osculating plane of the curve.
Absolute equation —
the sum of the optic and eccentric equations.
Absolute space —
space considered without relation to material limits or objects.
Absolute terms —
such as are known, or which do not contain the unknown quantity.
Absolute temperature —
the temperature as measured on a scale determined by certain general thermo-dynamic principles, and reckoned from the absolute zero.
Absolute zero —
the be ginning, or zero point, in the scale of absolute temperature. It is equivalent to -273° centigrade or -459.4° Fahrenheit.