ablate

American  

[a-bleyt] / æˈbleɪt /

verb (used with object)

ablated, ablating

1. to remove or dissipate by melting, vaporization, erosion, etc..

   to ablate a metal surface with intense heat.

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verb (used without object)

ablated, ablating

1. to become ablated; undergo ablation.

ablate British  

/ æbˈleɪt /

verb

1. (tr) to remove by ablation

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Etymology

Origin of ablate

First recorded in 1535–45; from Latin ablātus “carried away,” past participle of auferre “to carry away,” from au-, variant of ab- ab- + ferre “to bear, bring, carry”; for the element -lātus, earlier tlātus (unrecorded), see also thole ² ( def. ), tolerate ( def. )

Explanation

When you ablate something, you wear it away by rubbing or some other method. In medicine, doctors sometimes need to ablate a patient's skin to help it heal. The verb ablate is often used in many different sciences — in each case, it has a slightly different sense, although its basic meaning is always to erode or otherwise wear away a substance. One way for physicians to treat heart disease is to ablate the inside of an artery using a tiny drill-like tool, and geologists study the way processes like evaporation and erosion can ablate — or remove the surface of — a glacier. The Latin root word is ablationem, "a taking away."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ablate ablated ablating

"Magnetic bioactive nanocomposites are very promising for bone cancer therapy because they can simultaneously ablate tumors through magnetic hyperthermia and support new bone growth," said Dr. Ângela Andrade, lead author of the study.

From Science Daily ● Jan. 7, 2026

But some of those de-orbited satellites don’t seem to fully ablate or burn up.

From Salon ● Apr. 12, 2025

Where surgery is inappropriate, radiation therapy can be used to reduce the size of a tumor or ablate portions of the adrenal cortex.

From Textbooks ● Jun. 19, 2013

For example, standard laboratory mice “don't develop liver cirrhosis even after you ablate the liver many times”, says DePinho.

From Nature ● Oct. 12, 2011

That might, which was so great that to ablate it the earth had to bear new races, was based on two things, citizenship and the family.

From Historia Amoris: A History of Love, Ancient and Modern by Saltus, Edgar

Instead, plasticity appears to enable tumour maintenance once Lgr5+ cells have been ablated, although it is not able to fuel tumour growth as efficiently.

From Nature ● Mar. 28, 2017

The top layer of the cornea is surgically peeled back and the underlying tissue ablated by multiple bursts of finely controlled ultraviolet radiation produced by an excimer laser.

From Textbooks ● Aug. 12, 2015

In a related study, Arikawa and his team ablated or painted the photoreceptors on pregnant females' abdomens and released the butterflies into a cage with a potted lemon tree.

From Scientific American ● Aug. 20, 2012

Sidewise he looked at the ruin of the vase, on which Daughters of Heaven and an ablated dynasty may have warmed their eyes.

From The Paliser case by Saltus, Edgar

Abruptly, the categories of the infinite, the infant gods, shapes divine and demoniac, the entire phantasmagoria of metempsychosis, seemed really absorbed and Brahm himself ablated.

From The Lords of the Ghostland A History of the Ideal by Saltus, Edgar

In addition, follow-up studies should allow astronomers to probe the geology of these "ablating" worlds and better understand how such planets form and evolve—perhaps even shedding light on the oddities within our own solar system.

From Scientific American ● Dec. 23, 2019

The ablating nose cone is the design of the present.

From Time Magazine Archive