SG Heritage Dictionary

Absciss [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

In conics, a part of the diameter, or transverse axis of a conic section, intercepted between the vertex or some other fixed point, and a semiordinate.

Absciss [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

See Abscissa.

Abscissa [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

One of the elements of reference by which a point, as of a curve, is referred to a system of fixed rectilineal coordinate axes.

Abscissae [Plural] Webster's Dictionary 1913

of Abscissa

Abscissas [Plural] Webster's Dictionary 1913

of Abscissa

Abscisses [Plural] Webster's Dictionary 1913

of Absciss

Abscission [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1828

1. A cutting off, or a begin cut off. In surgery, the separation of any corrupted or useless part of the body, by a sharp instrument; applied to the soft parts, as amputation is to the bones and flesh of a limb.

2. In rhetoric, a figure of speech, when having begun to say a thing, a speaker stops abruptly, as supposing the matter sufficiently understood. Thus, He is a man of so much honor and candor, and such generosity--but I need say no more.

Abscission [Noun] Webster's Dictionary 1913

1. The act or process of cutting off.

2. The state of being cut off.

3. A figure of speech employed when a speaker having begun to say a thing stops abruptly: thus, "He is a man of so much honor and candor, and of such generosity -- but I need say no more."