abstract vs ground

abstract

noun
  • An abstract work of art. 

  • A powdered solid extract of a medicinal substance mixed with lactose. 

  • Concentrated essence of a product. 

  • An abridgement or summary of a longer publication. 

  • The theoretical way of looking at things; something that exists only in idealized form. 

  • An abstraction; an abstract term; that which is abstract. 

  • A summary title of the key points detailing a tract of land, for ownership; abstract of title. 

  • Something that concentrates in itself the qualities of a larger item, or multiple items. 

adj
  • Difficult to understand; abstruse; hard to conceptualize. 

  • Free from representational qualities, in particular the non-representational styles of the 20ᵗʰ century. 

  • Apart from practice or reality; vague; theoretical; impersonal; not applied. 

  • Lacking a story. 

  • Absolute. 

  • Being a partial basis for subclasses rather than a complete template for objects. 

  • Not concrete: conceptual, ideal. 

  • As a noun, denoting a concept or intangible as opposed to an object, place, or person. 

  • Separately expressing a property or attribute of an object that is considered to be inherent to that object: attributive, ascriptive. 

  • Pertaining comprehensively to, or representing, a class or group of objects, as opposed to any specific object; considered apart from any application to a particular object: general, generic, nonspecific; representational. 

  • Insufficiently factual. 

verb
  • To draw off (interest or attention). 

  • He was wholly abstracted by other objects. 

  • To separate; to disengage. 

  • To conceptualize an ideal subgroup by means of the generalization of an attribute, as follows: by apprehending an attribute inherent to one individual, then separating that attribute and contemplating it by itself, then conceiving of that attribute as a general quality, then despecifying that conceived quality with respect to several or many individuals, and by then ideating a group composed of those individuals perceived to possess said quality. 

  • To steal; to take away; to remove without permission. 

  • To consider abstractly; to contemplate separately or by itself; to consider theoretically; to look at as a general quality. 

  • To produce an abstraction, usually by refactoring existing code. Generally used with "out". 

  • To create abstractions. 

  • To summarize; to abridge; to epitomize. 

  • To remove; to take away; withdraw. 

  • To perform the process of abstraction. 

  • To withdraw oneself; to retire. 

ground

noun
  • The plain surface upon which the figures of an artistic composition are set. 

  • Basis, foundation, groundwork, legwork. 

  • Terrain. 

  • The pit of a theatre. 

  • A soccer stadium. 

  • Reason, (epistemic) justification, cause. 

  • A flat surface upon which figures are raised in relief. 

  • An electrical conductor connected to the earth, or a large conductor whose electrical potential is taken as zero (such as a steel chassis). 

  • The area on which a battle is fought, particularly as referring to the area occupied by one side or the other. Often, according to the eventualities, "to give ground" or "to gain ground". 

  • The surface of the Earth, as opposed to the sky or water or underground. 

  • One of the pieces of wood, flush with the plastering, to which mouldings etc. are attached. 

  • The bottom of a body of water. 

  • Background, context, framework, surroundings. 

  • The net of small meshes upon which the embroidered pattern is applied. 

  • A composition in which the bass, consisting of a few bars of independent notes, is continually repeated to a varying melody. 

  • Advantage given or gained in any contest; e.g. in football, chess, debate or academic discourse. 

  • The area of grass on which a match is played (a cricket field); the entire arena in which it is played; the part of the field behind a batsman's popping crease where he can not be run out (hence to make one's ground). 

  • The tune on which descants are raised; the plain song. 

  • Soil, earth. 

  • A gummy substance spread over the surface of a metal to be etched, to prevent the acid from eating except where an opening is made by the needle. 

verb
  • To cover with a ground, as a copper plate for etching, or as paper or other materials with a uniform tint as a preparation for ornament. 

  • To connect (an electrical conductor or device) to a ground. 

  • To forbid (an aircraft or pilot) to fly. 

  • To found; to fix or set, as on a foundation, reason, or principle; to furnish a ground for; to fix firmly. 

  • To run aground; to strike the bottom and remain fixed. 

  • To place something on the ground. 

  • To hit a ground ball. Compare fly (verb (regular)) and line (verb). 

  • To improve or focus the mental or emotional state of. 

  • To punish, especially a child or teenager, by forcing them to stay at home and/or give up certain privileges. 

  • To give a basic education in a particular subject; to instruct in elements or first principles. 

adj
  • Crushed, or reduced to small particles. 

  • Processed by grinding. 

How often have the words abstract and ground occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )