gravitate

What it means

1. intransitiveastrophysicsTo move under the force of gravity.

   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.

   1712, Sir Richard Blackmore, Creation; a philosophical poem in seven books, book II

2. figurativelyintransitiveTo tend or drift towards someone or something, as though being pulled by gravity.

   The guests slowly gravitated to the kitchen.

   5 more examples

   Children naturally gravitate to such a big, friendly man.

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

   1776, Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

   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.

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

   Responsibilities gravitate to the person who can shoulder them.

   1923, Elbert Hubbard, J.B. Runs Things

   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.

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

In a sentence

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.

1712, Sir Richard Blackmore, Creation; a philosophical poem in seven books, book II

Where it comes from

1. New Latingravitāt-
2. Englishgravitate

Borrowed from New Latin gravitāt-, past participial stem of gravitō.