ablative
noun
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L315929 on Wikidata ↗adjective
No English definition recorded for this entry.
L334197 on Wikidata ↗Wiktionary
Pronunciation: /ˈæb.lə.tɪv/ / /əˈbleɪ.tɪv/
adj
Etymology: From Middle English ablative, ablatife, ablatyf, ablatif, from Old French ablatif (“the ablative case”), from Latin ablātīvus (“expressing removal”), from ablātus (“taken away”), from auferō (“to take away”). The engineering/nautical sense originates from ablate + -ive.
- 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.
- Pertaining to taking away or removing.
“Where the heart is forestalled with misopinion, ablative directions are found needful to unteach error, ere we can learn truth.”
- Sacrificial, wearing away or being destroyed in order to protect the underlying material, as in ablative paints used for antifouling, or ablative heat shields used to protect spacecraft during reentry. .
“The inner layer of warship protection consists of ablative armor plate designed to "boil away" when heated. The vaporized armor material scatters a DEW beam, rendering it ineffectual.”
- Relating to the removal of a body part, tumor, or organ.
- Relating to the erosion of a land mass; relating to the melting or evaporation of a glacier.
noun
Etymology: From Middle English ablative, ablatife, ablatyf, ablatif, from Old French ablatif (“the ablative case”), from Latin ablātīvus (“expressing removal”), from ablātus (“taken away”), from auferō (“to take away”). The engineering/nautical sense originates from ablate + -ive.
- The ablative case.
- An ablative material.