absorbed

[ ab-sawrbd, -zawrbd ]

adjective

1. deeply interested or involved; preoccupied:

   He had an absorbed look on his face.

absorbed

/ əbˈsɔːbɪdlɪ; -ˈzɔːbd; -ˈzɔː-; əbˈsɔːbd /

adjective

1. engrossed; deeply interested

Derived Forms

• absorbedly, adverb

Other Words From

• ab·sorb·ed·ly [ab-, sawr, -bid-lee, -, zawr, -], adverb
• ab·sorbed·ness noun
• unab·sorbed adjective
• well-ab·sorbed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of absorbed¹

First recorded in 1755–65; absorb + -ed ²

Example Sentences

The nation’s most painful sacrifices were absorbed by his Democratic predecessors—in Obama’s case, that was the agonizingly slow recovery from the Great Recession that began under George W. Bush, and in Biden’s it was the pandemic-era round of inflation that struck every single country on the planet.

From Slate

The country performer’s stories about music are rife with the minute observations and historical tidbits absorbed and disseminated by die-hard fans.

From Los Angeles Times

"You add all those things together, and you get a dramatic change in budgets of a scale that's never going to be absorbed by efficiencies, and is going to require some pretty eye-watering cuts to sort of to the services we provide to London."

From BBC

Statements of the UK population growing annually by a total equal to the population of a city such Oxford or Nottingham – as popularised by Migration Watch and employed by politicians including Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage – don’t give a true impression of the dispersal of those arrivals, nor of how successfully or poorly they are absorbed into existing demand for public services.

From BBC

Their aunt, Barbara Sastre, told us they were like little bugs - “bichetes” - an endearing description to convey how they buzzed around, that is, when they weren’t absorbed by their cartoons.

From BBC

Related Words

• captivated
• consumed
• engaged
• engrossed
• fascinated
• involved
• preoccupied