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comparative more abrupt or abrupter, superlative most abrupt or abruptest
(obsolete, rare) Broken away (from restraint).
Without notice to prepare the mind for the event; sudden; hasty; unceremonious. quotations examples
The cause of your abrupt departure.
1592, William Shakespeare, Henry VI Part I, II-iii
There was something in this abrupt allusion to the treasured and hidden past, that at once shocked and silenced Norbourne. He was annoyed to find that his heart's sweetest secret was in the possession of one so little likely to keep it;...
1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “Success”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], page 76
'Is it a slickstone?' she asks, and Maren snorts, an abrupt sound, bringing her hand up to her mouth.
2020 January 28, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, The Mercies, page 130
Curt in manner. quotations examples
With no great disparity between them in point of years, they were, in every other respect, as unlike and far removed from each other as two men could well be. The one was soft-spoken, delicately made, precise, and elegant; the other, a burly square-built man, negligently dressed, rough and abrupt in manner, stern, and, in his present mood, forbidding both in look and speech.
1841 February–November, Charles Dickens, “Barnaby Rudge”, in Master Humphrey’s Clock, volume II, London: Chapman & Hall, […], chapter 12, page 301
Having sudden transitions from one subject or state to another; unconnected; disjointed. quotations examples
The abrupt style, which hath many breaches.
1641, Ben Jonson, Discoveries Made upon Men and Matter
(obsolete) Broken off.
Extremely steep or craggy as if broken up; precipitous. quotations examples
The mazy-running brookForms a deep pool; this bank abrupt and high.
1727, James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768
To the north the towering scree-strewn slopes of Saddleback begin to draw nearer as we start the abrupt descent towards Keswick.
1961 October, ""Voyageur"", “The Cockermouth, Keswick & Penrith Railway”, in Trains Illustrated, page 601
(botany) Suddenly terminating, as if cut off; truncate. quotations examples
Root oblong, blackish, nearly the thickness of the little finger, often growing obliquely; abrupt at the lower end, so as to appear as if bitten off, furnished with long whitish fibres.
1839, William Baxter, British Phænogamous Botany
third-person singular simple present abrupts, present participle abrupting, simple past and past participle abrupted
(transitive, archaic) To tear off or asunder. quotations
Till death abrupts them.
1642, Tho, published 1656
To interrupt suddenly. examples
plural abrupts
(poetic) Something which is abrupt; an abyss. quotations examples
Over the vast abrupt.
1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,