The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
adj. Not present; missing: absent friends; absent parents.
adj. Not existent; lacking: a country in which morality is absent.
adj. Exhibiting or feeling inattentiveness: an absent nod.
v. To keep (oneself) away: They absented themselves from the debate.
preposition. Without: "Absent a legislative fix, this is an invitation for years of litigation” ( Brian E. O'Neill).
the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
adj. Being away from a place; withdrawn from a place; not present.
adj. Not existing; lacking.
adj. Inattentive to what is passing; absent-minded; preoccupied.
v. To take or withdraw (one's self) to such a distance as to prevent intercourse; -- used with the reflexive pronoun.
v. To withhold from being present.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Not in a certain place at a given time; not in consciousness or thought at a certain time; away: opposed to present.
Not existing; wanting; not forming a part or attribute of: as, among them refinement is absent; revenge is entirely absent from his mind.
Absent-minded (which see).
n. One who is not present; an absentee.
To make absent; take or keep away: now used only reflexively, but formerly sometimes otherwise, as by Milton: as, to absent one's self from home; he absented himself from the meeting.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
adj. lost in thought; showing preoccupation
adj. not being in a specified place
adj. nonexistent
v. go away or leave
Word Usage
"Such a Nootka word, for instance, as when, as they say, he had been absent for four days might be expected to embody at least three radical elements corresponding to the concepts of absent, four, and day."