I.to draw away from a place or person, to drag or pull away.
I. Lit.
A. In gen.: “ut me a Glycerio miserum abstrahat,” Ter. And. 1, 5, 8; so, “liberos ab aliquo,” Caes. B. G. 3, 2, 5: “aliquem de matris complexu avellere atque abstrahere,” Cic. Font. 21 (17): “aliquem e gremio e sinuque patriae,” id. Cael. 24, 59; “for which, aliquem gremio,” Ov. M. 13, 658: “aliquem raptim ex oculis hominum,” Liv. 39, 49, 12: “naves e portu,” id. 37, 27, 6 (al. a portu): “aliquem a conspectu omnium in altum,” Cic. de Or. 3, 36, 145 (corresp. with, a terra abripuit).—Absol.: “bona civium Romanorum diripiunt ... in servitutem abstrahunt,” Caes. B. G. 7, 42, 3: “navem remulco abstraxit,” id. B. C. 2, 23. —
B. Esp., to withdraw, alienate from a party: “copias a Lepido,” Cic. Fam. 10, 18, 3: “Germanicum suetis legionibus,” Tac. A. 2, 5.
II. Trop., to draw away, withdraw, divert: “animus se a corpore abstrahet,” Cic. Rep. 6, 26: “a rebus gerendis senectus abstrahit (for which in the preced., avocare),” id. de Sen. 6: “me a nullius commodo,” id. Arch. 6, 12: “aliquem a malis, non a bonis,” id. Tusc. 1, 34 fin. al.: “magnitudine pecuniae a bono honestoque in pravum abstractus est,” Sall. J. 29, 2: “omnia in duas partes abstracta sunt, respublica, quae media fuerat, dilacerata,” id. ib. 41, 5.—Hence, abstractus , a, um, P. a.; in the later philosophers and grammarians, abstract (opp. concrete): “quantitas,” Isid. Or. 2, 24, 14.
