GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

Found 2 definitions

1.       
   Ablative , a. [F. ablatif, ablative, L. ablativus fr. ablatus. See Ablation.]
   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
   (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
         
       

2.       
   Ablative, (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