ABSORBENT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Absorbent

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/əbzˈɔrbənt/ Listen

adjective

absorbent adj. Absorbing; swallowing; absorptive.

Absorbent ground (Paint.), a ground prepared for a picture, chiefly with distemper, or water colors, by which the oil is absorbed, and a brilliancy is imparted to the colors.

noun

Absorbent n.

Anything which absorbs. "The ocean, itself a bad absorbent of heat."

(Med.) Any substance which absorbs and neutralizes acid fluid in the stomach and bowels, as magnesia, chalk, etc.; also a substance e. g., iodine which acts on the absorbent vessels so as to reduce enlarged and indurated parts.

pl. (Physiol.) The vessels by which the processes of absorption are carried on, as the lymphatics in animals, the extremities of the roots in plants.

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Etymology of 'Absorbent'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Absorbent" Quotes from Famous Books

... Yet she had not the slightest cough; and it was remarked by Dr. WARREN, sen. that he had never observed that diseased action to increase, while the wound remained open. At last the lower extremities swelled, which might be attributed to the upright posture, and the pressure on the absorbent vessels in that posture. The appetite failed; she complained of a constant sense of depression at the stomach, and, without any remission of the difficulty of breathing, died on the ...

— Cases of Organic Diseases of the Heart • John Collins Warren

... to the vigour of the vegetating branch. Thus if the upper part of a branch be cut away, the buds near the extremity of the remaining stem, having a greater proportional supply of nutriment, or possessing a greater facility of shooting their roots, or absorbent vessels, down the bark, will become leaf-buds, which might otherwise have been flower-buds. And the contrary as explained in note on l. 463. of ...

— The Botanic Garden - A Poem in Two Parts. Part 1: The Economy of Vegetation • Erasmus Darwin

... then, that all stars are suns with continuous spectra, and the classes are differentiated by the character of the absorbent vapours of ...

— History of Astronomy • George Forbes

... simple retelling; in the listening and the retelling, it is dominant for good. The child imitates what he hears you say and sees you do, and the way you say and do it, far more closely in the story-hour than in any lesson-period. He is in a more absorbent state, as it were, because there is no preoccupation of effort. Here is the great opportunity of the cultured teacher; here is the appalling opportunity of the careless or ignorant teacher. For the implications of the oral theory of teaching English are evident, ...

— Stories to Tell Children - Fifty-Four Stories With Some Suggestions For Telling • Sara Cone Bryant

... with a rising color and brightening eyes. Already, the absorbent capacity of the Roman Church had drawn to itself that sympathetic side of his character which was also one of its strongest sides. Already, his love for Penrose—hitherto inspired by the virtues of the man—had narrowed its range to sympathy with the trials and privileges ...

— The Black Robe • Wilkie Collins

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