Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act or process of absorbing or the condition of being absorbed.
  • noun A state of mental concentration.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act or process of absorbing, or the state of being absorbed, in all the senses of the verb: as—
  • noun In physiology, the process of taking up into the vascular system (venous or lymphatic) either food from the alimentary canal or inflammatory products and other substances from the various tissues. Plants absorb moisture and nutritive juices principally by their roots, but sometimes by their general surfaces, as in seaweeds, and carbonic acid by their leaves. Absorption of organic matter by leaves takes place in several insectivorous plants.
  • noun In Herbart's pedagogic system, the gradual process of the apprehension of the manifold: a translation of the German vertiefung. Otherwise called concentration and self-estrangement.
  • noun Specifically— In the absorption of gases, the volume of a gas which one volume of a liquid will dissolve.
  • noun In optics, the constant K in the equation , where A0 is the amplitude of an incident ray, A1 its amplitude after penetrating to a depth of one wave-length in the absorbing medium, and e the base of natural logarithms.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act or process of absorbing or sucking in anything, or of being absorbed and made to disappear.
  • noun (Chem. & Physics) An imbibing or reception by molecular or chemical action
  • noun (Physiol.) In living organisms, the process by which the materials of growth and nutrition are absorbed and conveyed to the tissues and organs.
  • noun Entire engrossment or occupation of the mind.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The act or process of absorbing or of being absorbed as,
  • noun electrical engineering The retaining of electrical energy for a short time after it has been introduced to the dielectric.
  • noun The taking on of by a shipping company of special charges by another without price increase.
  • noun The natural lessening of radio waves due to atmospheric interference.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the mental state of being preoccupied by something
  • noun complete attention; intense mental effort
  • noun (chemistry) a process in which one substance permeates another; a fluid permeates or is dissolved by a liquid or solid
  • noun the social process of absorbing one cultural group into harmony with another
  • noun (physics) the process in which incident radiated energy is retained without reflection or transmission on passing through a medium
  • noun the process of absorbing nutrients into the body after digestion

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin absorptiō, absorptiōn-, from absorptus, past participle of absorbēre, to absorb; see absorb.]

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  • "4. In Herbart's pedagogic system, the gradual process of the apprehension of the manifold: a translation of the German vertiefung. Otherwise called concentration and self-estrangement."

    --Century Dictionary

    February 11, 2011