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 ]

(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 ]