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abstraction

   Also found in: Dictionary/thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Wikipedia, Hutchinson 0.01 sec.

In object technology, determining the essential characteristics of an object. Abstraction is one of the basic principles of object-oriented design, which allows for creating user-defined data types, known as objects. See object-oriented programming and encapsulation.

1.abstraction - Generalisation; ignoring or hiding details to capture some kind of commonality between different instances. Examples are abstract data types (the representation details are hidden), abstract syntax (the details of the concrete syntax are ignored), abstract interpretation (details are ignored to analyse specific properties).
2.(programming)abstraction - Parameterisation, making something a function of something else. Examples are lambda abstractions (making a term into a function of some variable), higher-order functions (parameters are functions), bracket abstraction (making a term into a function of a variable).

Opposite of concretisation.
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In his haste and abstraction he stuck a pickle-fork into his right eye, and on removing the fork the eye came with it.
Fantastic-Fables by Bierce, Ambrose View in context
Besides the investigation into the manner in which the deceased had met his death, there were serious questions to be settled relating to the cause of the fire, to the abstraction of the keys, and to the presence of a stranger in the vestry at the time when the flames broke out.
The Woman in White by Collins, Wilkie View in context
His attitude had in it a suggestion of abstraction, like that of a sleepwalker.
Present At A Hanging And Other Ghost Stories by Bierce, Ambrose View in context
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