When reading about distributed databases, the CAP theorem is often discussed, where a system can only choose 2 out of the following three properties

• consistency
• availability
• partition tolerance

It is usually then stated that network partitions are rare but unavoidable,so most databases chose CP or AP. But what would it mean for an application to not be partition tolerant? It seems that not being partition tolerant would sacrifice either availability (by shutting down when a partition is detected), or consistency (by letting each partition manage its own state). So can a system ever really be A%C and only sacrifice partition tolerance?