in Grammar, the third case in the declension of nouns, expressing the state or relation of a thing to which some other thing is referred. It is called dative, because usually governed by a verb implying something to be given to some person. As commodare Socrati, to lend to Socrates; utilis reipublicae, useful to the commonwealth; perniciosus ecclesiae, injurious to the church. In English, in which properly there are no cases, this relation is expressed by to or for.