- without warning; suddenly or unexpectedly: Not noticing that the car in front of him had stopped abruptly, he rear-ended it.
- in few words and without using any polite formulas; brusquely: My 14-year-old son was calling; as soon as I picked up, he asked abruptly, “How long till you get home?”
- steeply; sharply: At one end, the meadow flowed into a large valley; at the other, it dropped off abruptly in a cliff.
