percolate

verb per·co·late \ ˈpər-kə-ˌlāt , nonstandard -kyə- \

|Updated on: 16 Jul 2018

Definition of percolate

percolated; percolating

1 a : to cause (a solvent) to pass through a permeable substance (such as a powdered drug) especially for extracting a soluble constituent

b : to prepare (coffee) in a percolator

2 : to be diffused through : penetrate

intransitive verb

1 : to ooze or trickle through a permeable substance : seep

2 a : to become percolated

b : to become lively or effervescent

3 : to spread gradually

allow the sunlight to percolate into our rooms
—Norman Douglas

4 : simmer 2a

the feud had been percolating for a long time

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percolation

play \ˌpər-kə-ˈlā-shən\ noun

See percolate defined for English-language learners

See percolate defined for kids

Examples of percolate in a Sentence

Sunlight percolated down through the trees.
Rumors percolated throughout the town.
There is nothing like percolating coffee over an open campfire.
Coffee was percolating on the stove.

Recent Examples of percolate from the Web

But with no successor to Marchionne named, the questions about the company's future will continue to percolate, even though the five-year plan laid out last month in Italy was received generally favorably.

— eric d. lawrence, Detroit Free Press, "How likely is a Fiat Chrysler/Hyundai merger?," 2 July 2018
The Red Hen affair continues to percolate through our national discourse.

— michael hiltzik, latimes.com, "Martin Luther King Jr. had a few words to say about calls for 'civility'," 26 June 2018
Rodney’s basic point is that deep learning is an overnight success that required 70 years to percolate.

— rob reid, Ars Technica, "Ars on your lunch break, part three: Those darn robot overlords," 22 June 2018
But other ideas starting to percolate in economic policy circles may have advantages in terms of cost and political viability.

— neil irwin, New York Times, "If the Robots Come for Our Jobs, What Should the Government Do?," 12 June 2018
Other studies found the dams and ponds actually helped blunt water temperature spikes, perhaps by allowing water to percolate underground and cool.

— ben goldfarb, Science | AAAS, "Beaver dams without beavers? Artificial logjams are a popular but controversial restoration tool," 7 June 2018
As the soccer gets underway in Kaliningrad, all of these tensions are percolating while the stadium serves as a clear messaging tool for the Kremlin’s looming strength in the region.

— ross kenneth urken, The New Republic, "Playing Geopolitics With the World Cup," 5 June 2018
Of course, the negative drivers of fear, dominance, and exploitation are still percolating.

— mark sappenfield, The Christian Science Monitor, "Can the Arctic teach the world to cooperate?," 20 May 2018
Late in the second quarter, the animosity that had been percolating between the two teams nearly bubbled over when Robert Covington sent Goran Dragic skittering face first across the court with a body after he’d been fouled on a fastbreak.

— david murphy, Philly.com, "How special can these Sixers be? Just listen to Dwyane Wade | David Murphy," 21 Apr. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'percolate.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Did You Know?

Percolate comes from a Latin verb meaning "to put through a sieve". Something that percolates filters through something else, just as small particles pass through a sieve. Water is drawn downward through the soil, and this percolation usually cleans the water. A slow rain is ideal for percolating into the soil, since in a violent rainstorm most of it quickly runs off. For this reason, drip irrigation is the most effective and water-conserving form of irrigation. Percolation isn't always a physical process; awareness of an issue may percolate slowly into the minds of the public, just as Spanish words may gradually percolate into English, often starting in the Southwest.