Word.ws English Dictionary

nictate

/nɪkˈteɪt/

nictate verb: to wink or blink; (of certain animals) to close the nictating membrane.

Verb

nictate (third-person singular simple present nictates, present participle nictating, simple past and past participle nictated)

  1. (intransitive) To wink or blink; (of certain animals) to close the nictating membrane.
    • Indignantly interrogated as to whether he himself believed or exercised this abhominable and perabsurd superstition, he very gravely nictated his dexter eyelid. And I nictated mine. And we both laughed.1909, Frederick Rolfe, Don Renato, Chatto & Windus, published 1963
    • Gently I pressed my quivering sting along her rolling salty eyeball. ‘Goody-goody,’ she said nictating.1955, Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita

nictate meaning in Tamil and Bengali

nictate in Tamil

சிமிட்டு

nictate in Bengali

চোখ মারা, চোখ পিটপিট করা, নিকটেটিং মেমব্রেন বন্ধ করা

Forms of nictate

third-person singular presentnictates
present participlenictating
past participlenictated
pastnictated

Origin of nictate

First attested in 1755; borrowed from Latin nictātus, perfect passive participle of nictō (“to wink, blink”), see -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Questions about nictate

What does nictate mean?
Nictate means to wink or blink; (of certain animals) to close the nictating membrane.
What is nictate in Tamil?
Nictate in Tamil is சிமிட்டு. See Nictate meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is nictate?
Nictate is a verb.
How do you pronounce nictate?
Nictate is pronounced /nɪkˈteɪt/ (UK).
What is the past tense of nictate?
The past tense of nictate is nictated.

Words near nictate in the dictionary

  1. nicoxamat
  2. NICRA
  3. NICRUT
  4. NICRUTs
  5. NICs
  6. nictate
  7. nictated
  8. nictates
  9. nictating
  10. nictating membrane
  11. nictating membranes

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: nictate (page history and authors); nictate (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); nictate (Bengali Wiktionary) (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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-nictate.wav.

Cite this entry: “nictate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/nictate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.