octavates

Verb

octavate (third-person singular simple present octavates, present participle octavating, simple past and past participle octavated)

1. (intransitive) To resonate or sound one octave higher or lower.
   • The string, originally divided, will continue for some time to “octavate”.1922, Diran Alexanian [aut.] and Frederick Fairbanks [tr.], Complete Cello Technique (2003 repub.), page 105
2. (intransitive) To span (at least) one octave in playing a musical instrument.
   • Ability to ornament, octavate, play chords and do some improvising.1984, VdGSA News, XXI-XXIV, page 39
3. (rare, transitive) To double the pitch of (a part of itself).
   • A 12-string doubles the octaves of only the lower four strings…. A doubled, capoed guitar “octavates up” the top two strings.1999, Jon Chappell, The Recording Guitarist, page 133
4. (rare) To convert (the expression of a number) from denary to octal notation.
   • To octavate the number one hundred the reasoning is as follows. The square of eight goes into one hundred once with remainder thirty-six. This remainder contains eight to the first power four times with remainder four. Hence to express one hundred to the base 8 we write the digits 144 which in...1949, The American Mathematical Monthly, LVI, page 463

See all 5 meanings of octavate