also 4 absens. [a. Fr. absence, refash. from OFr. ausence:—L. absentia n. of state f. absent-em ABSENT.]
1. The state of being absent or away (from any place); also the time of duration of such state.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troyl. & Cres., IV. 427. Absens of hire shal dryve hire out of herte.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 203. He made Edwin his lieutenaunt … That he the lond in his absence Shall reule.
c. 1440. Gesta Rom., I. i. 3. The knyȝt … told him howe his wife hadde don in his absence.
1526. Tindale, Phil. ii. 12. Not when I was present only, but now moche more in myne absence.
1660. Dryden, Astræa Redux, 21. For his [Charles II.’s] long absence Church and State did groan.
1719. Young, Busiris, II. i. (1757), 29. Methinks Absence has plac’d her in a fairer light.
1754. Richardson, Grandison, V. iii. 21. She was very variable all that time in her absences.
1859. Ld. J. Russell, Addr. to Electors of Lond. Among the defects of the Bill, which were numerous, one provision was conspicuous by its presence, and one by its absence.
1862. Trench, Miracles, xxviii. 380. Our Lord … was now returning to Capernaum, after one of his usual absences.
1864. Tennyson, En. Arden, 246. She mourn’d his absence as his grave.
1882. Daily News, 3 July, 2/1. Other usually prominent members were for several hours conspicuous by their absence.
b. poet. An absent form or face. Cf. presence.
1866. W. D. Howell, Venetian Life, 118. The balconies are full of the Absences of gay cavaliers and gentle dames.
1873. Higginson, Oldport Days, i. 14. What graceful Absences (to borrow a certain poet’s phrase) are haunting those windows.
2. Of things: Want, failure, withdrawal.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R. (1495), IX. xxii. 361. Floures that open ayenst the sonne closen in the euen for absence of the sonne.
1765. Harris, Three Treat., I. 24. Was it not the Absence of Health, which excited Men to cultivate the Art of Medicine.
1847. Carpenter, Zool., I. § 239. They [the Edentata] all agree in the absence of teeth in the front of the jaws.
1863. Kemble, Resid. in Georgia, 24. A total absence of self-respect.
3. Absence (of mind): inattention to what is going on; failure to receive impressions of what is present, through preoccupation with other matters; involuntary abstraction.
1710. Addison, Spectator, No. 77. I continued my walk, reflecting on the little absences and distractions of mankind.
1728. Young, Love of Fame (1757), III. 103. Absence of mind Brabantio turns to fame, Learns to mistake, nor knows his brother’s name.
1782. Priestley, Matter & Spirit, I. x. 129. Absence of mind is altogether an involuntary thing.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. VII. vi. 366. Disquietude, absence of mind is on every face; Members whisper, uneasily come and go.
4. At Eton College, calling of the roll to ascertain if all the boys are present, or who are absent.
1856. W. N. Lettsom, Song of Floggawaya, 6. So the Lord of Puggawaugun Laid on them an extra absence; E’en at that they snapp’d their fingers.
1865. Pall Mall Gaz., 8 June, 10. Absence, as it is called at Eton, requiring the presence of the boys to answer their names.
