migrate

verb

mi·​grate ˈmī-ˌgrāt  mī-ˈgrāt 

migrated; migrating; migrates

1

intransitive : to move from one country, place, or locality to another

Thousands of workers migrate to this area in the summer.

In another Bavarian village, … 48 out of its total Jewish population of 225 migrated to America between 1834 and 1853, mostly to Cleveland.

—Jonathan D. Sarna

… the Carolinas benefited when manufacturing migrated first from … England to the mill towns of New England and then to here, where labor was even cheaper …

—Stephanie Clifford

2

intransitive : to pass usually periodically from one region or climate to another for feeding or breeding

The whales migrate between their feeding ground in the north and their breeding ground in the Caribbean.

… migrating birds making the long flight over Lake Erie from the United States to Canada drop to the nearest available ground after the crossing.

—Kathryn K. Rushing

3

transitive : to relocate (information) from storage or operation on one computer or computer system to another

In this release we've made further improvements and changes, such as support to migrate files from the legacy model to the new … storage model, and better management of cached files.

—Dave Burke

Work-from-home mandates will most likely be experienced again, so companies are adding work-from-home technology to their business continuity planning. This includes accelerating considerations and plans to migrate applications and file servers to the cloud …

—Steve Shoemake and Franzuha Byrd

4

intransitive : to change position or location in an organism or substance

filarial worms migrate within the human body

migratable

ˈmī-ˌgrā-tə-bəl 

mī-ˈgrā-

adjective

migrator

ˈmī-ˌgrā-tər 

mī-ˈgrā-

noun

plural migrators

While … some birds that migrate at night take directional cues from polarized light at twilight, there has been little evidence that daytime migrators make direct use of the sun.

—Henry Fountain

Example Sentences

He migrates from New York to Florida each winter.

Thousands of workers migrate to this area each summer.

The whales migrate between their feeding ground in the north and their breeding ground in the Caribbean.

They followed the migrating herds of buffalo across the plains.

Recent Examples on the Web

Infoblox’s mix of on-premises and SaaS solutions and the ability to run them together in a single pane of glass for network management without any rip and replace will help companies migrate through this journey. —Patrick Moorhead, Forbes, 23 Jan. 2023

Over 80 species of birds either inhabit or migrate through Lake Abert, and 338 species depend on the Great Salt Lake. —Caroline Tracey / High Country News, Popular Science, 15 Jan. 2023

The film explains how chimeric cells—named after a mythical monster formed of different animal parts—are when a fetus’ cells migrate into their mother’s organs and remain a piece of them. —Time, 13 Jan. 2023

That could mean your streaming subscription of choice adds a lower monthly fee propped up by ads or that more of your favorite shows could migrate as media companies continue to duke it out for content rights. —Tatum Hunter, Washington Post, 3 Jan. 2023

Virgin Voyages welcomes its third ship Resilient Lady, which will sail the Mediterranean and then migrate to Australia. —Richard Tribou, Orlando Sentinel, 3 Jan. 2023

For generations, Nicaragua, the second poorest country in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti, saw only a trickle of its people migrate northward. —Frances Robles, New York Times, 27 Dec. 2022

As ice melts from these vertical surfaces, the terrace walls migrate horizontally, Scambos says. —Douglas Fox, Scientific American, 1 Nov. 2022

Forced to leave Iran during the 1979 revolution, Cohan’s family moved to Tel Aviv, then to San Diego, joining a long list of Jewish people who have had to migrate from their homes. —Rebecca Firkser, Bon Appétit, 20 Dec. 2022

See More

Word History

Etymology

Latin migratus, past participle of migrare; perhaps akin to Greek ameibein to change

First Known Use

circa 1623, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing migrate

• in-migrate
• out-migrate

• in-migrate
• out-migrate

Kids Definition

migrate

verb

mi·​grate ˈmī-ˌgrāt 

migrated; migrating

1

: to move from one country, place, or locality to another

2

: to pass from one region or climate to another usually on a regular schedule for feeding or breeding

3

: to change position or location in a living thing or substance

parasitic worms migrating from the lungs to the liver

Medical Definition

migrate

intransitive verb

mi·​grate ˈmī-ˌgrāt  mī-ˈ 

migrated; migrating

: to move from one place to another: as

a

: to move from one site to another in a host organism especially as part of a life cycle

filarial worms migrate within the human body

b

of an atom or group : to shift position within a molecule

migratory

ˈmī-grə-ˌtōr-ē, -ˌtȯr- 

adjective