gestate

Back-formation from gestation on the basis of -ate (verb-forming suffix).

• IPA^(key): /d͡ʒɛsˈteɪt/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪt

gestate (third-person singular simple present gestates, present participle gestating, simple past and past participle gestated)

1. (intransitive) To carry offspring in the uterus from conception to delivery.
   • 2012, H. DeWayne Ashmead, Amino Acid Chelation in Human and Animal Nutrition, CRC Press, →ISBN:

     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.

2. (by extension, intransitive) To develop an idea.
   • 1986, David Leavitt, The Lost Language of Cranes, paperback edition, Penguin, page 112:

     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.

   • 1990 December 9, Walta Borawski, quoting Allen Barnett, “'Unfortunately, Life Has Followed Art...'”, in Gay Community News, volume 18, number 21, page 7:

     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."

• gestation

• tagetes

gestāte

1. vocative masculine singular of gestātus

gestate

1. second-person singular voseo imperative of gestar combined with te