In logic abduction; a kind of argument, wherein the greater extreme is evidently contained in the medium, but the medium not so evidently in the lesser extreme, as not to require further proof. Thus, “All whom God absolves are free from sin; but God absolves all who are in Christ; therefore all who are in Christ are free from sin.” The first proposition is evident; but the second may require further proof, as that God received full satisfaction for sin, by the suffering of Christ.

In mathematics, a progress or passage from one proposition to another, when the first, having been demonstrated, is employed in proving others.

In the Athenian law, the carrying a criminal, taken in the fact, to a magistrate.