oblate

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"Be a Benedictine Father or oblate, a black Friar.

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Definitions (19)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. adjective Having the shape of a spheroid generated by rotating an ellipse about its shorter axis.
  2. adjective Having an equatorial diameter greater than the distance between poles; compressed along or flattened at the poles: Planet Earth is an oblate solid.
  3. noun A layperson dedicated to religious life.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (10)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

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Examples (50)

  • Persistent repetition will finally influence the young mind, however gifted, and if Mr Wells had been subject to the discipline of what may be called an efficient education, he might have seen his sphere at the age of twenty-seven as slightly flattened—whether it appeared oblate or prolate is no consequence—and I could not have crowned him with the designation that heads this Introduction. —  H. G. Wells
  • Note that you omitted your latest "pious title" which at last count was now "oblate". —  National Catholic Reporter
  • But Cunningham himself is something of a fashion "oblate-a layperson who has dedicated his life to the tribe without becoming a part of it." examines the relatively new "mumblecore" genre of low-budget, independent films so nicknamed because they are "a kind of lyrical documentary of American stasis and inarticulateness." —  Slate Magazine
  • He is what our rule calls an oblate, he is a holy and learned man, whom you will certainly like; you can talk with him during the meal Ah!" —  En Route
  • You will allow me, father The monk acquiesced by a sign Then if you will come with me," replied the oblate, addressing Durtal, "I will hand it you without delay They went upstairs together, and Durtal then learnt that M. Bruno lived in a room at the bottom of a small corridor, not far from his own His cell was very simply furnished with old middle-class furniture, a bed, a mahogany bureau, a large book-case full of ascetic books, an earthenware stove and some arm-chairs. —  En Route
 

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Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Probably New Latin oblātus : Latin ob-, toward; see ob- + Latin (prō)lātus; see prolate.
  2. Medieval Latin oblātus, from Latin, past participle of offerre, to offer; see offer.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Latin oblatus, past participle of obferre, offerre, present, offer, devote: see offer.
  2. 1. = French oblat = Spanish Portuguese Italian oblato, from Middle Latin oblatus, an oblate, i. e. a secular person devoted, with his belongings, to a particular monastery or service, from Latin oblatus, past participle, offered, devoted: see oblate, v. 2. = Old French oublee, ublee, oblie, an offering, altar-bread, a cake, wafer, French oublie (later Spanish oblea), a wafer (see oble), = Spanish Portuguese oblada, an offering of bread, oblata, an offering, = Italian oblata, from Middle Latin oblata, an offering, tribute, especially an offering of bread, altar-bread, a cake, wafer, feminine of Latin oblatus, offered: see above.
  3. from Latin oblatus, taken in sense of ‘spread out,’ namely, at the sides of the sphere, past participle of obferre, offerre, bring forward, present, offer: see offer.
 

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/ɑbˈleɪt/
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