apricate

Verb

apricate (third-person singular simple present apricates, present participle apricating, simple past and past participle apricated)

1. (intransitive, rare) To bask in the sun.
   • Cats like to apricate.
   • From the top of this gatehouse was a most pleasant and delightful prospect as is to be seen. His Lordship [Sir Thomas More] was wont to recreate himself in this place to apricate and contemplate, and his little dog with him.1697, [John Aubrey], “Sir Thomas More”, in [Charles Henry Wilson], editor, The Polyanthea: Or, A Collection of Interesting Fragments, in Prose and Verse: […] In Two Volumes, volume I, London: Printed...

   Synonyms:

   sun, bask, sunbathe

2. (also, figuratively, rare, transitive) To disinfect and freshen by exposing to the sun; to sun.
   • No longer were social parties the old heraldic solemnities enjoyed by red letters in the almanac, in which the chief objects were to discharge some arrear of ceremonious debt, or to ventilate old velvets, or to apricate and refresh old gouty systems and old traditions of feudal ostentation, which...1851 May, Thomas De Quincey, “Lord Carlisle on Pope. From Tait’s Magazine.”, in W. H. Bidwell, editor, The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, volume XXIII, number I, New York...