ABSORPTION • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Absorption

Translators

Dictionaries

Courses

Other

Home

Add this Dictionary
to your website!
See more options...

/əbzˈɔrpʃən/ /əbsˈɔrpʃən/ Listen

noun

Absorption n.

The act or process of absorbing or sucking in anything, or of being absorbed and made to disappear; as, the absorption of bodies in a whirlpool, the absorption of a smaller tribe into a larger.

(Chem. & Physics) An imbibing or reception by molecular or chemical action; as, the absorption of light, heat, electricity, etc.

(Physiol.) In living organisms, the process by which the materials of growth and nutrition are absorbed and conveyed to the tissues and organs.

Entire engrossment or occupation of the mind; as, absorption in some employment.

See images of 'Absorption'

Etymology of 'Absorption'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

Share |

"Absorption" Quotes from Famous Books

... which belong the beans, peas, and clover, have the power of directly assimilating the free nitrogen from the atmosphere. This is accomplished through the agency of groups of bacteria, which form colonies in little tubercles on the roots of the plants. These bacteria probably assist in the absorption of nitrogen by changing the free nitrogen into compounds which can be assimilated by the plant. Fig. 27 shows the tubercles on the roots of a variety of bean. (3) The presence of water vapor in the air is necessary to prevent excessive evaporation from both plants and animals. (4) ...

— An Elementary Study of Chemistry • William McPherson

... have to do with the physical properties, such as electrical conductivity, magnetic condition, light-absorption, cohesion, and chemical affinities of matter at excessively low temperatures. It is found that in all these regards most substances are profoundly modified when excessively cooled. Thus if a piece of any pure metal is placed in an electric circuit and ...

— A History of Science, Volume 5(of 5) - Aspects Of Recent Science • Henry Smith Williams

... condition,—is there not a need of realizing so clearly that it is the duty apportioned to the one fitted for it, that it shall inspire fidelity and reverence,—even at the risk of what the unthinking may describe as selfish absorption? For there are vast varieties of ministering for ministering spirits. The work of the social settlement is divine; but the poet and the painter, if they produce poems and paintings, cannot devote ...

— The Life Radiant • Lilian Whiting

... back into her pew, with the complacent expression of one who is sure of her hearer's complete absorption in her words. ...

— The Girl in the Mirror • Elizabeth Garver Jordan

... hemispherical mirror (either metallic or dioptric on my father's principle) which is made to revolve with uniform speed about the burner. This mirror, it is obvious, intercepts the rays of one hemisphere, and, returning them through the flame (less loss by absorption, etc.), spreads them equally over the other. In this way 180 deg. of light pass regularly the eye of the seaman; and are followed at once by 180 deg. of darkness. As the hemispherical mirror begins to open, the observer ...

— The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson - Swanston Edition Vol. XXII (of 25) • Robert Louis Stevenson

More quotes...