abduction

5 definitions found

abduction - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Abduction \Ab*duc"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]

abduction - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  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

abduction - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  abduction
  
     <logic> 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
     <jj@cis.ohio-state.edu>].
  
     (2000-12-07)
  

abduction - 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 - 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