ablative

3 definitions found

ablative - 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]

  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]

ablative - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  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]