[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

abduction \abduc"tion\, n. l. abductio: cf. f. abduction.
   1. the act of abducing or abducting; a drawing apart; a
      carrying away. --roget.
      1913 webster

   2. physiol. the movement which separates a limb or other
      part from the axis, or middle line, of the body.
      1913 webster

   3. law the wrongful, and usually the forcible, carrying off
      of a human being; as, the abduction of a child, the
      abduction of an heiress.
      1913 webster

   4. logic a syllogism or form of argument in which the major
      is evident, but the minor is only probable.
      1913 webster

[2] : WordNet (r) 2.0

abduction
     n 1: the criminal act of capturing and carrying away by force a
          family member; if a man's wife is abducted it is a crime
          against the family relationship and against the wife
     2: physiology moving of a body part away from the central
        axis of the body

[3] : Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0

28 moby thesaurus words for "abduction":
   apprehension, arrest, arrestation, capture, catch, catching,
   collaring, coup, crimping, dragnet, forcible seizure, grab,
   grabbing, hold, impressment, kidnapping, nabbing, picking up,
   power grab, prehension, running in, seizure, seizure of power,
   shanghaiing, snatch, snatching, taking in, taking into custody

[4] : The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (27 SEP 03)

abduction
     
         the process of inference to the best explanation.
     
        "abduction" is sometimes used to mean just the generation of
        hypotheses to explain observations or conclusionsm, but the
        former definition is more common both in philosophy and
        computing.
     
        the semantics and the implementation of abduction cannot be
        reduced to those for deduction, as explanation cannot be
        reduced to implication.
     
        applications include fault diagnosis, plan formation and
        default reasoning.
     
        negation as failure in logic programming can both be given
        an abductive interpretation and also can be used to implement
        abduction.  the abductive semantics of negation as failure
        leads naturally to an argumentation-theoretic interpretation
        of default reasoning in general.
     
        better explanation?  example?
     
        "abductive inference", john r. josephson
        .
     
        2000-12-07
     
     
see also:
inference semantics deduction default reasoning negation as failure logic programming 
argumentation 

[5] : Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)

abduction, crim. law. the carrying away of any person by force or fraud.
this is a misdemeanor punishable by indictment. 1 east, p.c. 458; 1 russell,
569.  the civil remedies are recaption, q.v. 3 inst. 134; hal. anal. 46; 3
bl. com 4; by writ of habeas corpus; and an action of trespass, fitz. n. b.
89; 3 bl. com 139, n. 27; roscoe, cr. ev. 193.

Abduction >> A Words
Abduction, definition of term: Abduction
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