| absent | 1. Being away from a place; withdrawn from a place; not present. "Expecting absent friends." 2. Not existing; lacking; as, the part was rudimental or absent. 3. Inattentive to what is passing; absent-minded; preoccupied; as, an absent air. "What is commonly called an absent man is commonly either a very weak or a very affected man." (Chesterfield) Synonym: Absent, Abstracted. These words both imply a want of attention to surrounding objects. We speak of a man as absent when his thoughts wander unconsciously from present scenes or topics of discourse; we speak of him as abstracted when his mind (usually for a brief period) is drawn off from present things by some weighty matter for reflection. Absence of mind is usually the result of loose habits of thought; abstraction commonly arises either from engrossing interests and cares, or from unfortunate habits of association. Origin: F, fr. Absens, absentis, p. Pr. Of abesse to be away from; ab + esse to be. Cf. Sooth. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| absent distal clavicle | <radiology> Cleidocranial dysostosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hyperparathyroidism (12 Dec 1998) |
| absent nasal septum | <radiology> Cocaine, Wegener's (midline lethal granuloma), surgery, trauma, syphilis, sarcoid (12 Dec 1998) |
| absent state | The saemiconscious state associated with an epileptic attack. Synonym: absent state. (05 Mar 2000) |
| absenteeism | Chronic absence from work or other duty. (12 Dec 1998) |
| syndrome, thrombocytopenia-absent radius | See Syndrome, TAR. (12 Dec 1998) |
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| thrombocytopenia-absent radius syndrome | <syndrome> Tar stands for thrombocytopenia (low blood platelets) and aplasia (absence) of the radius (the long bone on the thumb-side of the forearm), features characterizing this syndrome. There is phocomelia (flipper-limb) with the thumbs always present. The fibula (the smaller bone in the lower leg) is often absent. The risk of bleeding from too few platelets is high in early infancy but lessens with age. The condition is inherited in an autosomal recessive trait with one gene (on a non-sex chromosome) coming from each parent to the tar child. Alternative names include thrombocytopenia-absent radius syndrome, radial aplasia-thrombocytopenia syndrome, and tetraphocomelia-thrombocytopenia syndrome. (12 Dec 1998) |