ABRUPT • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Abrupt

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/əbrˈəpt/ Listen

adjective

Abrupt adj.

Broken off; very steep, or craggy, as rocks, precipices, banks; precipitous; steep; as, abrupt places. "Tumbling through ricks abrupt,"

Without notice to prepare the mind for the event; sudden; hasty; unceremonious. "The cause of your abrupt departure."

Having sudden transitions from one subject to another; unconnected. "The abrupt style, which hath many breaches."

(Bot.) Suddenly terminating, as if cut off.

Synonyms: Sudden; unexpected; hasty; rough; curt; unceremonious; rugged; blunt; disconnected; broken.

noun

Abrupt n. An abrupt place. (Poetic) ""Over the vast abrupt.""

verb

Abrupt v. t. To tear off or asunder. (Obs.) "Till death abrupts them."

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Etymology of 'Abrupt'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Abrupt" Quotes from Famous Books

... and, of course, the enthusiasm of a British audience almost reached its climax. We now encountered the gable-end of a station-house, and the balloon being by this time thoroughly collapsed, our aerial trip was brought to an abrupt conclusion. I know nothing more of what occurred, having been carried on a shutter, in ...

— Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 1, Complete • Various

... She had determined that she would see no more of Sir John Conroy. She rewarded his past services with liberality: he was given a baronetcy and a pension of L3000 a year; he remained a member of the Duchess's household, but his personal intercourse with the Queen came to an abrupt conclusion. ...

— Queen Victoria • Lytton Strachey

... by little, Polk Street dropped back to solitude. Eleven o'clock struck from the power-house clock. Lights were extinguished. At one o'clock the cable stopped, leaving an abrupt silence in the air. All at once it seemed very still. The ugly noises were the occasional footfalls of a policeman and the persistent calling of ducks and geese in the closed market. The ...

— McTeague • Frank Norris

... nature,—he strained his ears to listen, as it were to the deepening dumbness of all existing things,—and to conquer the strange sensations that were overcoming him, he proceeded at a more rapid pace,—but in two or three minutes came again to an abrupt halt. For there in front of him, right across his path, lay the fallen pillar which, according to Heliobas, marked the boundary to the field he sought! Another glance at his map decided the position ... he had reached his journey's end at last! What was the time? ...

— Ardath - The Story of a Dead Self • Marie Corelli

... as though they were signing a treaty, or granting an amnesty. The meanest employe seems to think himself invested with certain occult powers. His civility savours of government patronage; and his frown is inquisitorial. To his fellows, his address is abrupt and diplomatic. He seems to speak in cipher, and to gesticulate by some rule of freemasonry. But to the uninitiated he is explanatory to a scruple, as though mischief might ensue from his being misapprehended. He makes sure of your understanding by an emphasis, which reminds one of the loudness ...

— The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Vol. 10, Issue 273, September 15, 1827 • Various

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