Absorbed means so caught up in something that nothing else registers. Absorbed in a book, completely absorbed, absorbed in thought.
It is the state psychologists call flow when it is going well, and it takes in — absorbed in rather than absorbed by. The other sense is physical: light, water and shocks are absorbed, taken in and not given back. Note absorbing, which describes the thing that does it to you.
1adjectiveabsorbedSo caught up in something that nothing else registers.
“The boys were so absorbed in their game that they missed their bus stop.”
2adjectivetakenTaken in and not given back.
“The paper towels were heavy with absorbed oil from the chips.”
absorbed is a state of full attention.
Latin
absorbeō
Old French
assorbir
Middle French
absorber
English
absorb
English, today
absorbed
From absorb + -ed. absorb comes from Middle French absorber, from Old French assorbir, from Latin absorbeō. From Middle French absorber, from Old French assorbir, from Latin absorbeō (“swallow up”), from ab- + sorbeō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European srebʰ- (“to sip”). Compare French absorber.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA