gravitate

English

Etymology

Back-formation from gravitation. Or borrowed from New Latin gravito, gravitatus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹævɪteit/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Hyphenation: grav‧i‧tate

Verb

gravitate (third-person singular simple present gravitates, present participle gravitating, simple past and past participle gravitated)

1. (intransitive, astrophysics) To move under the force of gravity.
   • 1712, Sir Richard Blackmore, Creation; a philosophical poem in seven books, book II:

     Theſe, who have nature's ſteps with care purſued,
     That matter is with ac‍tive force endued,
     That all its parts magnetic power exert,
     And to each other gravitate, aſſert.

2. (intransitive, figuratively) To tend or drift towards someone or something, as though being pulled by gravity.

   Children naturally gravitate to such a big, friendly man.

   The guests slowly gravitated to the kitchen.

   • 1776, Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations:

     The natural price, therefore, is, as it were, the central price, to which the prices of all commodities are continually gravitating.

   • 1923, Elbert Hubbard, "J.B. Runs Things":

     Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them.

   • 1940 May, “The Irish Railways Today”, in Railway Magazine, page 296:

     A considerable amount of new rolling stock has been built for the main line services during recent years, and the older stock has gravitated to the secondary and branch lines.

Translations

to move under the force of gravity

• Esperanto: graviti
• Bulgarian: бивам притеглен (bivam priteglen)
• Irish: imtharraing
• Portuguese: gravitar (pt)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Russian: гравитировать (ru) (gravitirovatʹ)
• Tagalog: dumagsin

to tend or drift towards someone or something, as though being pulled by gravity

• Bulgarian: гравитирам (bg) (gravitiram)
• Finnish: hakeutua (fi), suuntautua (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Irish: imtharraing

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• French: ^{(please verify)} graviter (fr)
• Italian: ^{(please verify)} gravitare (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} gravita (ro)
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} gravitar (es)

References

• “gravitate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “gravitate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

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Italian

Etymology 1

Verb

gravitate

1. inflection of gravitare:
   1. second-person plural present indicative
   2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

Participle

gravitate f pl

1. feminine plural of gravitato

Anagrams

• attergavi, rigettava

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Latin

Noun

(deprecated template usage) gravitāte

1. ablative singular of gravitās

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Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French gravité, Latin gravitas, gravitatem; equivalent to grav +‎ -itate. Compare greutate, possibly an inherited doublet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ɡra.viˈta.te]

Noun

gravitate f (uncountable)

1. gravity, seriousness, graveness

Declension

declension of gravitate (singular only)

	singular
f gender	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(o) gravitate	gravitatea
genitive/dative	(unei) gravități	gravității
vocative	gravitate, gravitateo

Related terms

• grav
• gravitație