gravitate

English

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈɡɹævɪteɪt/

• 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.

   • 1898, Kate Douglas Wiggin, chapter 8, in Penelope’s Progress […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Houghton, Mifflin and Company […], →OCLC:

     As the presence of any considerable number of priests on an ocean steamer is supposed to bring rough weather, so the addition of a few hundred parsons to the population of Edinburgh is believed to induce rain,—or perhaps I should say, more rain.

   • 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.

   • 2012 March 30, Joe Levy, “Rockers at Sea”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     I lingered with seven new friends from Chicago on a back balcony, where concert attendees waiting to be convinced traditionally congregate. The more we drank, the farther up front we gravitated. I finished the show a few feet from the stage.

Translations

to move under the force of gravity

• Bulgarian: бивам притеглен (bivam priteglen)
• Esperanto: graviti
• Irish: imtharraing
• Polish: grawitować impf
• Portuguese: gravitar (pt)
• 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)
• Irish: imtharraing
• Polish: grawitować impf

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)
• 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.

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

Latin

Noun

gravitāte

1. ablative singular of gravitās

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin gravitās; equivalent to grav +‎ -itate. Compare greutate, possibly an inherited doublet.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɡra.viˈta.te/
• Rhymes: -ate
• Hyphenation: gra‧vi‧ta‧te

Noun

gravitate f (uncountable)

1. gravity (seriousness, graveness)
2. (dated) Synonym of gravitație (“force of gravity”).

Declension

singular only	indefinite	definite
nominative-accusative	gravitate	gravitatea
genitive-dative	gravități	gravității
vocative	gravitate, gravitateo

Derived terms

• centru de gravitate

Related terms

• grav
• gravitație

Further reading

• gravitate in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)

Spanish

Verb

gravitate

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