Definify.com
Webster 1913 Edition
Ablative
1.
Taking away or removing.
[Obs.]
Where the heart is forestalled with misopinion,
ablative
directions are found needful to unteach error, ere we can learn truth. Bp. Hall.
2.
(Gram.)
Applied to one of the cases of the noun in Latin and some other languages, – the fundamental meaning of the case being removal, separation, or taking away.
Ab′la-tive
,(Gram.)
The ablative case.
ablative absolute
, a construction in Latin, in which a noun in the ablative case has a participle (either expressed or implied), agreeing with it in gender, number, and case, both words forming a clause by themselves and being unconnected, grammatically, with the rest of the sentence; as, Tarquinio regnante, Pythagoras venit, i. e., Tarquinius reigning, Pythagoras came.
Webster 1828 Edition
Ablative
AB'LATIVE
,Adj.
A word applied to the sixth case of nouns in the Latin language, in which case are used words when the actions of carrying away, or taking from, are signified.
Ablative absolute, is when a word in that case, is independent, in construction, of the rest of the sentence.
Definition 2024
Ablative
ablative
ablative
See also: Ablative
English
Adjective
ablative (not comparable)
- (grammar) Applied to one of the cases of the noun in some languages, the fundamental meaning of the case being removal, separation, or taking away, and to a lesser degree, instrument, place, accordance, specifications, price, or measurement. [First attested from around (1350 to 1470).][2]
- (obsolete) Pertaining to taking away or removing. [Attested from the mid 16th century until the early 18th century.][2]
- 1622, Joseph Hall, The Works of Joseph Hall: Sermons, page 123:
- Where the heart is forestalled with misopinion, ablative directions are found needful to unteach error, ere we can learn truth.
-
- (engineering, nautical) Sacrificial, wearing away or being destroyed in order to protect the underlying, as in ablative paints used for antifouling. [First attested in 1959.][3].
- (medicine) Relating to the removal of a body part, tumor, or organ. [First attested in the mid 20th century.][2]
- (geology) Relating to the erosion of a land mass; relating to the melting or evaporation of a glacier. [First attested in the mid 20th century.][2]
Derived terms
Translations
obsolete: taking away
applied to one of the cases of the noun in other language
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Noun
ablative (plural ablatives)
- (grammar) The ablative case. [First attested around 1350 to 1470.][2]
- An ablative material. [Mid 20th century.][2]
Translations
(grammar) the ablative case
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ablative case — see ablative case
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Derived terms
References
- ↑ William Morris (editor), The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1971 [1969]; American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc.; ISBN 0-395-09066-0), page 3
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 Lesley Brown (editor), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition (Oxford University Press, 2003 [1933], ISBN 978-0-19-860575-7), page 5
- ↑ Elliott K. Dobbie, C. William Dunmore, Robert K. Barnhart, et al. (editors), Chambers Dictionary of Etymology (Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2004 [1998], ISBN 0550142304), page 3