Adjacent Words

Absorbed definitions

	Tweet

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ABSORB'ED, or ABSORPT', pp. Imbibed; swallowed; wasted; engaged; lost in study; wholly engrossed.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: giving or marked by complete attention to; "that engrossed look or rapt delight"; "then wrapped in dreams"; "so intent on this fantastic...narrative that she hardly stirred"- Walter de la Mare; "rapt with wonder"; "wrapped in thought" [syn: captive, absorbed, engrossed, enwrapped, intent, wrapped]
2: retained without reflection; "the absorbed light intensity"

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. intensely engaged or interested (he was absorbed in his work). Derivatives: absorbedly adv.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Absorb Ab*sorb", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Absorbed; p. pr. & vb. n. Absorbing.] [L. absorbere; ab + sorbere to suck in, akin to Gr. ?: cf. F. absorber.] 1. To swallow up; to engulf; to overwhelm; to cause to disappear as if by swallowing up; to use up; to include. ``Dark oblivion soon absorbs them all.'' --Cowper. The large cities absorb the wealth and fashion. --W. Irving. 2. To suck up; to drink in; to imbibe; as a sponge or as the lacteals of the body. --Bacon. 3. To engross or engage wholly; to occupy fully; as, absorbed in study or the pursuit of wealth. 4. To take up by cohesive, chemical, or any molecular action, as when charcoal absorbs gases. So heat, light, and electricity are absorbed or taken up in the substances into which they pass. --Nichol. --p. 8 Syn: To Absorb, Engross, Swallow up, Engulf. Usage: These words agree in one general idea, that of completely taking up. They are chiefly used in a figurative sense and may be distinguished by a reference to their etymology. We speak of a person as absorbed (lit., drawn in, swallowed up) in study or some other employment of the highest interest. We speak of a person as ebgrossed (lit., seized upon in the gross, or wholly) by something which occupies his whole time and thoughts, as the acquisition of wealth, or the attainment of honor. We speak of a person (under a stronger image) as swallowed up and lost in that which completely occupies his thoughts and feelings, as in grief at the death of a friend, or in the multiplied cares of life. We speak of a person as engulfed in that which (like a gulf) takes in all his hopes and interests; as, engulfed in misery, ruin, etc.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

If you are absorbed in something or someone, you are very interested in them and they take up all your attention and energy. They were completely absorbed in each other... = engrossed ADJ: v-link ADJ, usu ADJ in/by n

Moby Thesaurus

absent, absentminded, absorbed in, abstracted, bemused, buried, buried in, buried in thought, castle-building, caught up in, concentrating, contemplating, contemplative, daydreaming, daydreamy, deep, devoted, devoted to, dreaming, dreamy, drowsing, ecstatic, elsewhere, engaged, engaged in thought, engrossed, engrossed in, engrossed in thought, enmeshed in, entangled in, far-gone, faraway, half-awake, immersed, immersed in, immersed in thought, implicated in, in a reverie, in the clouds, intent, intent on, introspective, involved, involved in, lost, lost in, lost in thought, meditating, meditative, monomaniacal, monopolized, mooning, moonraking, museful, musing, napping, nodding, oblivious, obsessed, occupied, pensive, pipe-dreaming, preoccupied, rapt, single-minded, somewhere else, stargazing, studious, studying, submerged in, swept up, taken up, taken up with, tied up in, totally absorbed, transported, unconscious, woolgathering, wrapped, wrapped in, wrapped in thought, wrapped up, wrapped up in