migrate

Verb

migrate (third-person singular simple present migrates, present participle migrating, simple past and past participle migrated)

1. (intransitive) To relocate periodically from one region to another, usually according to the seasons.
   • Twice a year the geese migrate — from Florida to Canada and back again.
   • Twice a year the Minnesotans migrate from their state to the Gulf of Mexico.
2. (intransitive) To change one's geographic pattern of habitation.
   • Many groups had migrated to western Europe from the plains of eastern Europe.
3. (intransitive) To change habitations across a border; to move from one country or political region to another.
   • To escape persecution, they migrated to a neutral country.
   • Little is more extraordinary than the decision to migrate, little more extraordinary than the accumulation of emotions and thoughts which finally leads a family to say farewell to a community where it has lived for centuries, to abandon old ties and familiar landmarks, and to sail across dark seas...1964, John F. Kennedy, “Why They Came”, in A Nation of Immigrants, Revised and Enlarged edition, Harper & Row, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 4
4. (intransitive) To move slowly towards, usually in groups.
   • Once the hosts started bickering in the kitchens, the guests began to migrate towards the living room.
5. (intransitive) To move gradually, especially from an intended to an unintended position.
   • Oil was able to migrate from the accessory gearbox into the magneto housing through the improperly installed gland seals.
   • It is very common for the position of the placenta to change as the uterus stretches and grows. An anterior placenta can migrate toward the top, sides, or back of the uterus as the weeks go on.2022 August 13, Donna Murray, “What Is an Anterior Placenta? How placenta placement affects pregnancy, labor, and delivery”, in verywellfamily, archived from the original on 09 Nov 2023
6. (transitive) To move computer code or files from one computer or network to another.
   • They had finished migrating all of the affected code to the production server by 2:00am, three hours later than expected.
7. (transitive) To induce customers to shift purchases from one set of a company's related products to another.
   • We were hoping to migrate the customers of the "C" series to the "E" series and the "E" customers to the "S" series.