v. Pa. pple. absorbed, formerly absorpt. [a. mod. Fr. absorbe-r, a refashioning, after L., of OFr. asorber, more commonly asorbir, assorbir:—L. absorbē-re to swallow up, f. ab off, away + sorbē-re to suck in; pa. pple. absorpt-us, whence ABSORPT, formerly used as pa. pple. In no Dict. bef. Blount, 1656; Cockeram, 1626, has ABSORBEATE; Cotgr., 1611, has Fr. ‘Absorbé, supped or drunk wholly up; devoured, swallowed, consumed.’]
I. To swallow up.
† 1. To swallow up; as water, mire, an earthquake; also fig. Obs.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, xxvii. 160. Take my sowle and delyuere her … from these sorowfulle peynes in whiche I am absorbed in the grete viage of heuynes.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Paraph., Matt. xvii. 5. A bryghte cloude ouershadowed thapostles, lest they should be absorpte and ouercummed with the highnesse of the sighte.
1684. T. Burnet, Th. of Earth, 85. As to Rome, there is … a more dreadful fate that will attend it; namely, to be absorpt or swallowed up in a lake of fire and brimstone.
1725. Pope, Odyssey, XII. 130. Beneath, Charybdis holds her boist’rous reign ’Midst roaring whirlpools, and absorbs the main.
a. 1800. Cowper, On names in Biogr. Britann. Dark oblivion soon absorbs them all.
2. Hence, To swallow up, to include or take a thing in to the loss of its separate existence; to incorporate. To be absorbed, to be swallowed up, or comprised in, so as no longer to exist apart.
1553–87. Foxe, A. & M., III. 17. The substance of the bread is absorpt … into the human body of Christ.
1659. Pearson, On Creed (1839), 231. That old conceit of Eutyches … that the humanity was absorbed and wholly turned into the Divinity.
1820. W. Irving, Sketch Bk., I. 120. In some countries, the large cities absorb the wealth and fashion of the nation.
1866. Rogers, Agric. & Prices, I. iv. 65. The purchase of a pound of candles would have almost absorbed a workman’s daily wages.
1876. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. ii. 9. Into the English nation his own followers were gradually absorbed.
3. To engross, or completely engage the attention or faculties.
1830. Baroness Bunsen, in Hare’s Life, I. ix. 353. [It] could not so far absorb me as to prevent my often turning my back upon it.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exped. (1856), xliii. 403. [I] only postponed it because I happened to get absorbed in a book.
1875. Farrar, Silence & Voices, iii. 52. Let us absorb our entire beings in this one aim.
II. To drink in.
4. To suck in, drink in (a fluid); to imbibe.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, III. § 299. (1628), 77. The Euills that come of Exercise, are: First, that it maketh the Spirits more Hot and Predatory. Secondly, that it doth absorbe likewise, and attenuate too much the Moisture of the Body.
1814. Sir H. Davy, Agricult. Chem., 15. Animal and vegetable matters deposited in soils are absorbed by plants.
1878. Huxley, Physiogr., 24. The clay refuses to absorb the water.
5. To take up (imponderable agents) by chemical or molecular action.
1707. in Phil. Trans., XXV. 2374. Whether the Muslin absorps the Effluvium,… I cannot tell.
1794. Sullivan, View of Nat., I. xiv. 140. Some reflect the rays without producing any change, and those are white; others absorb them all, and cause absolute blackness.
c. 1860. Faraday, Forces of Nat., iii. 78. Whenever a solid body loses some of that force of attraction by means of which it remains solid, heat is absorbed.
1869. Roscoe, Chem., 186. It is found possible to absorb hydrogen in certain metals.
