abruption

[Lat. abruptio.] [ABRUPT.] 1. The act of breaking off or wrenching asunder, literally or figuratively. "Who makes this pretty abruption !"-Shakesp.: Troil. & Cre ., iii. 2. 2. The state of being broken off or wrenched asunder, literally or figuratively. have commonly some of that matter still adhering to them, or at least marks of its abruption from them."- Woodward: Nat. Hist . ab-rúpt'-lý, adv. [ABRUPT.] I. In space : 1. As if breken off, as if a part were wanting; truncate. Botany. Abruptly pinnate: Having a compound leaf with neither a leaflet nor a tendril at its extremity. It is called also equally pinnate or paripinnate . 2. Sheer up, or sheer down, vertically, perpendicularly. "This small point rises abruptly out of the depths of the ocean."-Darwin: Voyage round the World, ch. i. II. In time: Suddenly, without warning given. "And thus abruptly spake-'We yield.'" Words worth: White Doe of Rylstone, canto iii. ab-rupt-ne , s . [ABRUPT.] The quality of terminating abruptly. L Lit .: 1. The quality of ending in a broken-looking or truncated manner. which abruptne is caused by its being broken off from the said stone."- Woodward: Nat. Hist. 2. Precipitousne . "In the Cordillera I have seen mountains on a far grander scale; but for abruptne nothing at all comparable with this."-Darwin: Voyage round the World , ch. xviii. IL. Fig .: Applied to speech, style of writing, action, . "But yet let not my humble zeal offend By its abruptne ." Byron Manfred, iii. 4. in which we may evenly proceed, without being put to short stops by sudden den abruptne , or puzzled by frequent turnings and transpositions Pope: Homer's Ody ey, Postscript. a-brus, s . [In Sp. abro de cuentas de rosario; fr. Gr. ἁβρός ( habros ) = graceful. So called from the delicate and graceful character of its leaves.] A genus of papilonaceous plants. A. pre cat or i us, a native of India, but which has spread to Africa and the West Indies, is the Jamaica wild liquorice, so called because its roots are used in the West Indies for the same purpose as the liquorice of the shops. The plant furnishes those pretty red and black bead-like seeds so frequently brought from India. Linnæus says that they are deleterious, but they are eaten in Egypt. The term preca tori us (pertaining to petitioning) refers to the fact that the beads are sometimes used for rosaries.