oblate

plural oblates · plural oblati

1. CatholicismA 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

1. capitalizednot comparableDesignating a person who is an oblate, of or belonging to an order of oblates.

   an Oblate Father

comparative more oblate · superlative most oblate

1. Flattened or depressed at the poles.

   The Earth is an oblate spheroid.

   2 more examples

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

   1922 February 2, James Joyce, Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company […], →OCLC

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

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

present singular third person oblates · participle present oblating · participle past oblated · past oblated

1. rareTo offer as either a gift or an oblation.