gestate
/d͡ʒɛsˈteɪt/
gestate verb: to carry offspring in the uterus from conception to delivery.
Verb
gestate (third-person singular simple present gestates, present participle gestating, simple past and past participle gestated)
- To carry offspring in the uterus from conception to delivery.
- In the early 1960s, a study was conducted in which gestating rats were given diets containing the same mineral content of mineral salts or amino acid chelates.2012, H. DeWayne Ashmead, Amino Acid Chelation in Human and Animal Nutrition, CRC Press, →ISBN
- To develop an idea.
- Philip wondered at that five-year gap. Perhaps it simply proved that a work of genius takes longer to gestate than a work of mere competent brilliance.1986, David Leavitt, The Lost Language of Cranes, paperback edition, Penguin, page 112
- Barnett is not currently working on a novel. "Something is gestating in my head," he says, "but I am not yet sure if I have one character or two."1990 December 9, Walta Borawski, quoting Allen Barnett, “'Unfortunately, Life Has Followed Art...'”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 21, page 7
Forms of gestate
| third-person singular present | gestates |
|---|---|
| present participle | gestating |
| past participle | gestated |
| past | gestated |
Origin of gestate
Back-formation from gestation on the basis of -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Words that rhyme with gestate
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- mate
- late
- bate
- create
- date
- relate
- vibrate
- wait
- deflate
- fate
- migrate
- rebate
- rotate
- strait
- supererogate
- translocate
- await
- eight
- freight
- skate
- alternate
- collate
- debate
- inflate
- sedate
- update
- compensate
- delate
- dilate
- fixate
- grate
- Haight
- hate
- implicate
- innate
- intercalate
- locate
- mandate
- negate
- overweight
- pinnate
- quadrate
- tate
- vacate
- aerate
- calibrate
- castrate
- conflate
Questions about gestate
- What does gestate mean?
- Gestate means to carry offspring in the uterus from conception to delivery.
- What part of speech is gestate?
- Gestate is a verb.
- How do you pronounce gestate?
- Gestate is pronounced /d͡ʒɛsˈteɪt/.
- What is the past tense of gestate?
- The past tense of gestate is gestated.
Words near gestate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: gestate (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-gestate.wav.
Cite this entry: “gestate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/gestate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.