later-, lateral-, -late, -lat, -lation, -lative

1. To remove or dissipate by melting, vaporization, erosion, etc.: "The worker was ablating the metal surface with intense heat."
2. In medicine, to excise, to amputate, or otherwise to destroy a biological function; for example, of a body tissue by cutting, with a laser, or by means of electrocautery: "The doctor ablated the abnormal number of warts that had formed on Colleen's body with electrocautery (burning with electric heat)."

"The doctor indicated that she would ablate the lump from Tanya's leg."

"After a heavy rain, the top soil ablates from the field and runs off into the stream."

"After Patrick's crushed foot was ablated in the accident, as a runner he learned to run with a prosthetic foot and shoe."

"It would appear that the ice bergs are ablating faster than scientists had anticipated."

1. Surgical excisions, removals, or amputations of body parts or tissues: "The doctor specialized in the ablation of tumors on the lungs."
2. The erosive processes by which a glacier is reduced; wearing or wasting away: "Melting and the breaking off of a mass of ice from its parent glacier, iceberg, or ice shelf are ablations that ice bergs undergo during the summer months."
3. In aerospace, the dissipation of heat generated by atmospheric friction: "There are ablations in atmospheric re-entries of spacecrafts or missiles with the use of melting heat shields."

1. A reference to taking away or removing: "The city trash was consumed in a furnace which was fired at ablative temperatures that would consume the trash and leave a fine ash."
2. Tending to be removed or vaporized at very high temperatures: "The ablative material on a rocket cone fell off."
3. In grammar, applied to one of the cases of the noun in Latin and some other Indo-European languages: "The ablative case is the removal, separation, or taking away; that is, indicating direction away from, or time when."

"In some inflected languages, the ablative case has among its functions the indications of a place from which or, as in Latin, a place in which, a manner, a means, an instrument, or agent."

1. The heat shields of space vehicles, which melt or wear away during the re-entry into the earth's atmosphere: "The scientisst created a new ablator which could withstand extreme heat."
2. The outer surface of a spacecraft or missile: "Ablation is the erosion of the protective outer surface, or ablator, of a spacecraft or missile resulting from aerodynamic heating caused by travel at hypersonic speeds during re-entry through the atmosphere."

"The ablators on the spacecraft were welded into place using a specialized metal that would withstand great heat."

1. A reference to the world's second largest ocean, which separates Europe and Africa from North and South America. Area: 82,400,000 sq. km. (31,800,000 sq. mi.).
2. Relating to or bordering the Atlantic Ocean.

1. A mass spectrometer, an electromagnetic apparatus for separating isotopes of uranium according to mass.

Its name is a combination of California University + tron (Cal+U+tron) in tribute to the University of California, Ernest O. Lawrence's institution and the contractor of the Los Alamos laboratory. It was developed during the Manhattan Project and was similar to the cyclotron invented by Lawrence.

2. A device that separates isotopes by ionizing the sample, accellerating the ions in a strong electric field, and then passing them through a strong magnetic field.

1. To assemble pages in the correct order before they are made into a document or a book.
2. To bring together pieces of information and compare them in detail in order to arrange information that has been collected into a sensible order.
3. To verify the correct sequencing and completeness of the pages in a book.
4. Etymology: from Latin collatus, conferre, "to bring together", from com-, "together" + -latus, "to bear, to carry".

1. A detailed comparison between different items or forms of information.
2. The assembling of pieces of paper in proper numerical or logical sequence; especially, the sections of a book before binding.
3. The technical description of a book, including its bibliographical details and information about its physical construction, or the act of compiling such a description.

1. Inclined, or intended, to waste time, to cause a delay, to gain time, and to lag behind.
2. Using cautious slow strategy to wear down the opposition; and so, avoiding direct confrontation and deferring a decision: "The congressman used a dilatory strategy to keep the bill from being passed."
3. Etymology: from Latin dilatorius; from dilator, "procrastinator", from dilatus, the past participle form of differe, "to delay".