SUBTRACTION • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Subtraction

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/səbtrˈækʃən/ Listen

noun

Subtraction n.

The act or operation of subtracting or taking away a part.

(Math.) The taking of a lesser number or quantity from a greater of the same kind or denomination; an operation for finding the difference between two numbers or quantities.

(Law) The withdrawing or withholding from a person of some right to which he is entitled by law. Note: Thus the subtraction of conjugal rights is when either the husband or wife withdraws from the other and lives separate without sufficient reason. The subtraction of a legacy is the withholding or detailing of it from the legatee by the executor. In like manner, the withholding of any service, rent, duty, or custom, is a subtraction, for which the law gives a remedy.

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Etymology of 'Subtraction'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Subtraction" Quotes from Famous Books

... of impressment are by no means confined to its immediate subjects, or the individuals on whom it is practised. Vessels suffer from the weakening of their crews, and voyages are often delayed, and not unfrequently broken up, by subtraction from the number of necessary hands by impressment. And what is of still greater and more general moment, the fear of impressment has been found to create great difficulty in obtaining sailors for the American merchant service in times of European war. Seafaring ...

— The Great Speeches and Orations of Daniel Webster • Daniel Webster

... to fifteen—a new one being added to each of the courts of king's bench, common pleas, and exchequer. In Scotland, on the other hand, while courts were abolished, the number of judges in the remaining court was diminished by the subtraction of two from its fifteen lords ordinary, or working judges, on whose ability to get through the work depends whether the eight other judges, who sit four and four in two courts of review, shall have judgments ...

— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.III. - From George III. to Victoria • E. Farr and E. H. Nolan

... what could not Coleridge find a mystery if he wished? Dryden more wisely remarked that Milton became tedious when he entered upon a "track of Scripture." [21] Nor is it surprising that such is the case. The style of many parts of Scripture is such that it will not bear addition or subtraction. A word less or an idea more, and the effect upon the mind is the same no longer. Nothing can be more tiresome than a sermonic amplification of such passages. It is almost too much when, as from the pulpit, a paraphrastic commentary ...

— Harvard Classics Volume 28 - Essays English and American • Various

... world and Hannibal were at variance on account of a sum of subtraction which had taken away from ...

— What Can She Do? • Edward Payson Roe

... the number of feet of gas that has been burned since the meter was set at zero on the three dials. From this number we subtract the total of feet burned at the time when the preceding gas bill was rendered. This is generally called on the bill "present state of meter." The result of the subtraction will be the amount of gas that has been burned since the last bill was ...

— Practical Suggestions for Mother and Housewife • Marion Mills Miller

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