gestate

present singular third person gestates · participle present gestating · participle past gestated · past gestated

1. intransitiveTo carry offspring in the uterus from conception to delivery.

   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.

   2012, H. DeWayne Ashmead, Amino Acid Chelation in Human and Animal Nutrition, CRC Press, →ISBN

2. broadlyintransitiveTo develop an idea.

   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."

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

   1 more example

   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.

   1986, David Leavitt, The Lost Language of Cranes, paperback edition, Penguin, page 112