Word.ws English Dictionary

abstersion

UK/æbˈstɜː.ʒn̩//æbˈstɝ.ʒn̩/

abstersion noun: act of wiping clean; a cleansing; a purging.

Noun

abstersion (countable and uncountable, plural abstersions)

  1. (archaic) Act of wiping clean; a cleansing; a purging.
    • Waverley ... was offered the patriarchal refreshment of a bath for the feet ... He was not, indeed, so luxuriously attended upon this occasion as the heroic travellers in the Odyssey; the task of ablution and abstersion being performed, not by a beautiful damsel, trained To chafe the limb, and pour...1814, Sir Walter Scott, Waverley; or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since

Forms of abstersion

pluralabstersions

Origin of abstersion

From Middle English abstersioun, from either Old French or Medieval Latin abstertion, from Latin abstersus, past participle of abstergēo (“to wipe off or away”).

Questions about abstersion

What does abstersion mean?
Abstersion means act of wiping clean; a cleansing; a purging.
What part of speech is abstersion?
Abstersion is a noun.
How do you pronounce abstersion?
Abstersion is pronounced /æbˈstɜː.ʒn̩/ (UK).
What is the plural of abstersion?
The plural of abstersion is abstersions.

Words near abstersion in the dictionary

  1. absterging
  2. absterse
  3. abstersed
  4. absterses
  5. abstersing
  6. abstersion
  7. abstersions
  8. abstersive
  9. abstersiveness
  10. abstersives
  11. abstersory

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: abstersion (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Persent101-abstersion.wav.

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