abscission

Abscission: I found this word when I was trying to find out more about deciduous trees for a poem . As I recall, the trees mostly got left out, and abscission didn't get used either. For my limited (nonexistent) experience with the word, abscission means dropping leaves in the fall. I further take it to mean the intentional dropping or cutting off of something.

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Abscission Ab*scis"sion, n. [L. abscissio. See Abscind.]
1. The act or process of cutting off. "Not to be cured
without the abscission of a member." --Jer. Taylor.
[1913 Webster]

2. The state of being cut off. --Sir T. Browne.
[1913 Webster]

3. (Rhet.) A figure of speech employed when a speaker having
begun to say a thing stops abruptly: thus, "He is a man of
so much honor and candor, and of such generosity -- but I
need say no more."
[1913 Webster]

-- From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

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abscission
n 1: shedding of flowers and leaves and fruit following formation
of scar tissue in a plant
2: the act of cutting something off [syn: cutting off]

-- From WordNet (r) 2.0

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Abscission (from Latin abscindere, from ab- ‘off, away’ + scindere ‘to cut’) is the shedding of a body part. It most commonly refers to the process by which a plant intentionally drops one or more of its parts, such as a leaf, fruit, flower or seed, though the term is also used to describe the shedding of a claw by an animal.

From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abscission