1.
[syn: ablative, ablative case]
ADJECTIVE (2)
1. relating to the ablative case;
2. tending to ablate; i.e. to be removed or vaporized at very high temperature;
- Example: "ablative material on a rocket cone"
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Ablative \Ab"la*tive\, a. [F. ablatif, ablative, L. ablativus
fr. ablatus. See Ablation.]
1. Taking away or removing. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
Where the heart is forestalled with misopinion,
ablative directions are found needful to unteach
error, ere we can learn truth. --Bp. Hall.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Ablative \Ab"la*tive\, (Gram.)
The ablative case.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
ablative
adj 1: relating to the ablative case
2: tending to ablate; i.e. to be removed or vaporized at very
high temperature; "ablative material on a rocket cone"
n 1: the case indicating the agent in passive sentences or the
instrument or manner or place of the action described by
the verb [syn: ablative, ablative case]