Refine this word faster
Ablative
Definitions
- 1 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. not-comparable
- 2 Pertaining to taking away or removing. archaic, not-comparable
"Where the heart is forestalled with misopinion, ablative directions are found needful to unteach error, ere we can learn truth."
- 3 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. . not-comparable
"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."
- 4 Relating to the removal of a body part, tumor, or organ. not-comparable
- 5 Relating to the erosion of a land mass; relating to the melting or evaporation of a glacier. not-comparable
- 1 tending to ablate; i.e. to be removed or vaporized at very high temperature wordnet
- 2 relating to the ablative case wordnet
- 1 The ablative case.
- 2 the case indicating the agent in passive sentences or the instrument or manner or place of the action described by the verb wordnet
- 3 An ablative material.
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 (“I take away”). The engineering/nautical sense originates from ablate + -ive.
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 (“I take away”). The engineering/nautical sense originates from ablate + -ive.
See also for "ablative"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Unscramble this word: ablative