percolate

verb

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per·co·late | \ ˈpər-kə-ˌlāt

, nonstandard -kyə-

percolated; percolating

Definition of percolate

transitive verb

1a : 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

2a : 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 sense 2a the feud had been percolating for a long time

Other Words from percolate Synonyms Did You Know? Example Sentences Learn More about percolate

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Synonyms for percolate

Synonyms

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.

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 on the Web Rumors of a dangerous virus started to percolate among friends. — Los Angeles Times, "Lifers: How the people who serve you survived the last year," 17 Mar. 2021 When New York was the pandemic's epicenter last year, Cuomo was widely hailed for his handling of the crisis even as questions began to percolate about COVID outbreaks in nursing homes. — Jonathan Lemire And Marina Villeneuve, Star Tribune, "For Biden, questions about Cuomo grow harder to ignore," 17 Mar. 2021 The installation of the rain gardens will allow rainwater to percolate through the ground in a natural way to prevent sediment and other pollutants from running into the Chesapeake Bay, thus degrading the water quality. — Allana Haynes, baltimoresun.com, "At bay: Baltimore County congregations link spirituality to watershed projects," 15 Mar. 2021 DeBrusk, a top-six winger, is a key factor in whether the 5-on-5 production begins to percolate. — Kevin Paul Dupont, BostonGlobe.com, "Approaching quarter mark of season, Bruins need to improve 5-on-5 scoring," 7 Feb. 2021 Meanwhile, as all of these preparations continue and anxieties percolate, one of the most prolific commentators about current events, Trump, has been left without a platform after Twitter barred him. — Zachary Halaschak, Washington Examiner, "'Calm before the storm': Uneasy quiet descends on DC and Congress ahead of inauguration," 15 Jan. 2021 At the beginning of January, as the busy Lunar New Year travel season approached, concerns begin to percolate about a pneumonia-like virus thought to be linked to an animal market in Wuhan. — Washington Post, "2020: The year of the virus," 31 Dec. 2020 Nonetheless, misleading stories that percolate less widely can still have an insidious influence. — Rachel Lerman, Anchorage Daily News, "Vaccine hoaxes are rampant on social media. Here’s how to spot them.," 18 Dec. 2020 Every choice made during the museum’s century and a half—what to display, and how, and why—settled an in-house argument that can percolate anew, when confined to aesthetics, or that may run afoul of latter-day cultural and political realities. — Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker, "The Metropolitan Museum at a Hundred and Fifty," 23 Nov. 2020

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.