Definition of "absent"

Expecting absent friends.

1623, William Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well, II-iii

What is commonly called an absent man is commonly either a very weak or a very affected man.

1746-1747, Chesterfield, Letters to his Son

For days Ailie had an absent eye and a sad face, and it so fell out that in all that time young Heriotside, who had scarce missed a day, was laid up with a broken arm and never came near her.

1902, John Buchan, The Outgoing of the Tide

The Applause he met with exceeds all belief of the Absent.

1772, Frances Burney, Journals & Letters, Penguin 2001, 30 May

That very sense of longing, of yearning for the absent, which 'nostalgia' conveys to us now.

1947, Cecil Day Lewis, Poetic Image

If the accused refuse upon demand to pay money or deliver property (absent any excuse or excusing circumstance) which came into his hands as a bailee, such refusal might well constitute some evidence of conversion, with the requisite fraudulent intent required by the statute.

1919, “State vs. Britt, Supreme Court of Missouri, Division 2”, in The Southwestern Reporter, page 427

the Princess Caroline case […] established that – absent a measurable ‘public interest’ in publication – she was safe from being photographed while out shopping.

2011, David Elstein, London Review of Books, volume 33, number 15

About 25 percent of Russia’s large farms continue to be unprofitable, and that number would be considerably higher absent government subsidies and assistance programs.

2013, Stephen K. Wegren, “Agriculture”, in Stephen K. Wegren, editor, Return to Putin's Russia: Past Imperfect, Future Uncertain, 5th edition, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., page 223

And the distraction-management software Freedom offers a mode that won’t unlock affected apps absent a telephone-support call.

2019 September 5, Ian Bogost, “I tried to limit my screen time (It didn't go well)”, in The Atlantic‎

California cannot promulgate regulations that are inconsistent with US federal laws absent an explicit waiver from the federal government.

2020, Anu Bradford, “8. Is the Brussels Effect Beneficial?”, in The Brussels Effect. How the European Union Rules the World, Oxford University Press, page 258

If after due summons any member absents himself, he is to be fined.

1701-1703, Addison, Remarks on Italy

This work was strictly voluntary, but any animal who absented himself from it would have his rations reduced by half.

1945 August 17, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 6, in Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg

Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more;

1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,

The iron rule of the plantation, always passionately and violently enforced in that neighborhood, makes flogging the penalty of failing to be in the field before sunrise in the morning, unless special permission be given to the absenting slave.

1855, Frederick Douglass, My Bondage and My Freedom. […], New York, Auburn, N.Y.: Miller, Orton & Mulligan […]