ablative

Noun · Adjective
Synonyms: ablative case

WordNet 3.0

Noun (1)

  1. the case indicating the agent in passive sentences or the instrument or manner or place of the action described by the verbSynonyms: 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“ablative material on a rocket cone”
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Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

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]

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]

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