gurgitate

G2U1R1G2I1T1A1T1E1

verb

To surge (rise) and fall ebulliently, like or as water.

Scrabble 11

Meanings

verbgurgitate (third-person singular simple present gurgitates, present participle gurgitating, simple past and past participle gurgitated)

present singular third person gurgitates · participle present gurgitating · participle past gurgitated · past gurgitated

  1. To surge (rise) and fall ebulliently, like or as water.

    ... it input in certain prescribed forms for the desired output; it gurgitates for a while; then it drops out the sought-for representation; plonk, on the tray, fully formed, as Athena from the brain of Zeus' (Cartwright 1999: 247).

    2012 April 5, R. I. G. Hughes, The Theoretical Practices of Physics: Philosophical Essays, Oxford University Press, USA, →ISBN, page 68
    2 more examples

    From the gorge a faint steam rose like mist, and in the utter stillness I could hear, far down, the sound of gurgitating waters. In a little while - how long I could not tell - the moment of eruption would return and flood the chasm.

    1890, The Eclectic Magazine: Foreign Literature, page 76

    In both a cherub smiles at gurgitating, lion-headed fountains, their basins bright with chattering water, repetitious questions; one region consonantal, obdurate, the other vowelled. I pay both allegiance and gratitude, for lights net[…]

    2010 March 16, Derek Walcott, White Egrets: Poems, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 59
  2. To eat, especially to eat competitively (see competitive eating).

    [...] the stinkiest cheese, and the hungry "athlete" who excels at gurgitating plenty without regurgitating any[.]

    2011 October 1, Bathroom Readers' Institute, Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Golden Plunger Awards, Simon and Schuster, →ISBN
    2 more examples

    His attitude to statistics can best be indicated by an expression that seems not to have been used in any of the classics, but which involves the idea that he masticates, and gurgitates them before life is extinct.

    1915, Alcalde, page 484

    It's a head-nodder with Badlands' lyrical formula for gurgitating greatness laid over a loop from Thomas Dolby's eighties rock hit "She Blinded Me with Science." No bunson burners, or beakers [...] Just a competitive eater in sneakers[…]

    2006 April 4, Ryan Nerz, Eat This Book: A Year of Gorging and Glory on the Competitive Eating Circuit, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 32

Origin

  1. Latingurgitātus
  2. Englishgurgitate

From Latin gurgitātus, past participle of gurgitō. The second sense is partly a back-formation from regurgitate.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

gurgitate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gurgitate

MLA

“gurgitate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gurgitate. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “gurgitate,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/gurgitate.

Source: gurgitate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.