ablation /əˈbleɪʃn 
/ ▸ noun [mass noun] 1 the surgical removal of body tissue. 2 the removal of snow and ice from a glacier or iceberg by melting or evaporation. ▪ the erosion of rock, typically by wind action.
▪ the loss of surface material from a spacecraft or meteorite through evaporation or melting caused by friction with the atmosphere.
– ORIGIN late Middle English (in the general sense ‘taking away, removal’): from late Latin ablatio(n-), from Latin ablat- ‘taken away’, from ab- ‘away’ + lat- ‘carried’ (from the verb ferre).
EnglishOxford Dictionary of English
