The act of abstracting, separating, withdrawing, or taking away; withdrawal; the state of being taken away. • The taking surreptitiously for one's own use part of the property of another; purloining. • Removal of water from a river, lake, or aquifer. • A separation from worldly objects; a recluse life; the withdrawal from one's senses. • The act of focusing on one characteristic of an object rather than the object as a whole group of characteristics; the act of separating said qualities from the object or ideas. • Any characteristic of an individual object when that characteristic has been separated from the object and is contemplated alone as a quality having independent existence. • A member of an idealized subgroup when contemplated according to the abstracted quality which defines the subgroup. • The act of comparing commonality between distinct objects and organizing using those similarities; the act of generalizing characteristics; the product of said generalization. • An idea or notion of an abstract or theoretical nature. • Absence or absorption of mind; inattention to present objects; preoccupation. • An abstract creation, or piece of art; qualities of artwork that are free from representational aspects. • A separation of volatile parts by the act of distillation. • An idea of an idealistic, unrealistic or visionary nature. • The result of mentally abstracting an idea; the product of any mental process involving a synthesis of: separation, despecification, generalization, and ideation in any of a number of combinations. • The merging of two river valleys by the larger of the two deepening and widening so much so, as to assimilate the smaller. • Hiding implementation details from the interface of a component, to decrease complexity through interdependency and improve modularity; a construct that serves as such.