gate off

present singular third person gates off · participle present gating off · participle past gated off · past gated off

1. transitiveTo control access to (an area, road, etc.) by installing a gate.

   [The dog] was set up in a crate in the dining room, which was gated off from the rest of the house.

   2010, Jim Gorant, The Lost Dogs, page 175

   1 more example

   He had recently bought a piece of land through which ran a much-used trail to a public beach. He gated it off and the local community was outraged.

   2012, Luanne Armstrong, The Light through the Trees: Reflections on Land and Farming, page 60

2. businessTo turn something off by controlling its gate.

   The clock is gated off during standby mode.

   1 more example

   When the current exceeds the limit, the controller gates off the transistor.

3. figurativelyTo make (something) inaccessible; to restrict access to (something)

   When we situate climax during intercourse as the bullseye, we gate off the idiosyncrasy and experimentation that are the wellspring of sexual pleasure.

   2023 March 21, Zoe Williams, “The orgasm gap – and how to close it: ‘Don’t equate sex and penetration’”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 31 Mar 2023

   1 more example

   A site that carried [sexually explicit] material, but that gated it off from children through credit cards or other mechanisms to verify the age of the user, would have an acceptable defense under the act.

   1999 February 1, Pamela Mendels, “Judge Delays Online Pornography Law”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 06 Oct 2022