oblate

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈɒbleɪt/ (or IPA^(key): /ɒˈbleɪt/ for adjective)

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɑbleɪt/
• Rhymes: (UK adjective) -eɪt

From French oblat and its source, Ecclesiastical Latin oblātus (“person dedicated to religious life”), nominalization of oblātus, perfect passive participle of offerō (“to offer”); see -ate (noun-forming suffix).

oblate (plural oblates or oblati)

1. (Roman Catholicism) A person dedicated to a life of religion or monasticism, especially a member of an order without religious vows or a lay member of a religious community.
2. A child given up by its parents into the keeping or dedication of a religious order or house.
   • 2007, The Venerable Bede started as an oblate at St Paul's, Jarrow, but by the time of his death in 735 was surely the most learned man in Europe. — Tom Shippey, ‘I Lerne Song’, London Review of Books 29:4, p. 19

oblate (not comparable)

1. (chiefly capitalized) Designating a person who is an oblate, of or belonging to an order of oblates.

   an Oblate Father

From Late Latin oblātus, from Latin ob (“in front of, before”) + lātus (“broad, wide”), (modeled after prōlātus (“extended, lengthened”)).

oblate (comparative more oblate, superlative most oblate)

1. Flattened or depressed at the poles.

   The Earth is an oblate spheroid.

   • 1922 February, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC:

     Why should I not speak to him or to any human being who walks upright upon this oblate orange?

   • 1997, Thomas Pynchon, chapter 39, in Mason & Dixon, 1st US edition, New York: Henry Holt and Company, →ISBN, part Two: America, page 392:

     ’Tis prolate, still,’ with a long dejected Geordie O. ‘Isn’t it…?’ ‘I’m an Astronomer,– trust me, ’tis gone well to oblate.’

• prolate

• oblatum

• equidimensional

Borrowed from Latin oblātus, perfect passive participle of offerō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix). Doublet of offer.

oblate (third-person singular simple present oblates, present participle oblating, simple past and past participle oblated)

1. (rare) To offer as either a gift or an oblation.

• boatel, lobate

oblate

1. feminine plural of oblato

• balteo, belato, lobate

oblāte

1. vocative masculine singular of oblātus