ablative absolute


nounLatin Grammar.
  1. a construction not dependent upon any other part of the sentence, consisting of a noun and a participle, noun and adjective, or two nouns, in which both members are in the ablative case, as Latin viā factā, “the road having been made.”

Origin of ablative absolute

1
First recorded in 1520–30

Words Nearby ablative absolute

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How to use ablative absolute in a sentence

  • The first three lines might have been expressed by an ablative absolute in two words—Troia euersa.

  • This he remembered had interrupted the silent rehearsal of the sentence with the ablative absolute in it.

    Princeton Stories | Jesse Lynch Williams
  • To-night I have a pressing engagement with the ablative absolute.

    Daddy Long-Legs | Jean Webster
  • Try to remember, Quinlan, what I told you about the use of the ablative absolute.

    Short Sixes | H. C. Bunner
  • As for the ablative absolute, its reconstruction and regeneration have been the inspiring principle of my studious manhood.

    Average Jones | Samuel Hopkins Adams

British Dictionary definitions for ablative absolute

ablative absolute

noun
  1. an absolute construction in Latin grammar in which a governor noun and a modifier in the ablative case function as a sentence modifier; for example, hostibus victis, "the enemy having been beaten"

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