ablate

verb

ab·​late a-ˈblāt 

ablated; ablating

transitive verb

: to remove or destroy especially by cutting, abrading, or evaporating

intransitive verb

: to become ablated

especially : vaporize sense 1

Examples of ablate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The waves were powerful enough to ablate the pink granite into grey ash at the demo site, where samples were made available during the tour. — Georgina Jedikovska, Interesting Engineering, 18 Sep. 2025

The meteoroid heats up tremendously as well, ablating—blowing off—material from its surface, often leaving a lingering bright streak called a train. — Phil Plait, Scientific American, 12 June 2026

The thermal barrier is designed to ablate, or erode, during reentry, but the shield cracked and chipped away in an unexpected manner on the Artemis I mission in 2022. — Stephen Clark, ArsTechnica, 11 Apr. 2026

Gerding also showed the first results of IAP's new three-channel multi-species lidar that's set up to search for different materials expected to be ablated by reentering space debris. — Leonard David, Space.com, 13 May 2026

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Latin ablātus (suppletive past participle of auferre "to carry away, remove"), from ab- ab- + lātus, suppletive past participle of ferre "to bear" — more at bear entry 2, tolerate

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Rhymes for ablate

• abate
• airfreight
• await
• baseplate
• berate
• birthdate
• birthrate
• bookplate
• borate
• breastplate
• bromate
• casemate

Kids Definition

ablate

verb

ab·​late a-ˈblāt 

ablated; ablating

: to remove or become removed by cutting, wearing away, evaporating, or vaporizing

Medical Definition

ablate

transitive verb

ab·​late a-ˈblāt 

ablated; ablating

: to remove or destroy especially by cutting or abrading

ablate diseased tissue