regurgitate

verb

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re·gur·gi·tate | \ (ˌ)rē-ˈgər-jə-ˌtāt

regurgitated; regurgitating

Definition of regurgitate

intransitive verb

: to become thrown or poured back

transitive verb

: to throw or pour back or out from or as if from a cavity regurgitate food memorized facts to regurgitate on the exam

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Did You Know?

Something regurgitated has typically been taken in, at least partially digested, and then spit back out . . . either literally or figuratively. The word often appears in biological contexts (e.g., in describing how some birds feed their chicks by regurgitating incompletely digested food), or in references to ideas or information that have been acquired and restated. A student, for example, might be expected to learn information from a textbook or a teacher and then regurgitate it for a test. Regurgitate, which entered the English vocabulary in the mid-17th century, is of Latin origin and traces back to the Latin word for "whirlpool," which is gurges.

Examples of regurgitate in a Sentence

The bird regurgitates to feed its young. The bird regurgitates food to feed its young. She memorized the historical dates only to regurgitate them on the exam. The speaker was just regurgitating facts and figures.

Recent Examples on the Web Rubio was regurgitating the FBI’s talking points about how tasking informants to chat up Trump campaign officials about the campaign’s purported collusion with Russia was somehow not investigating the campaign. — Andrew C. Mccarthy, National Review, "More Media Misdirection on Trump-Russia," 22 Apr. 2020 Plenty of animal parents regurgitate food for their offspring, but this kind of food sharing between unrelated adults is nearly unheard of in the animal kingdom, says Ohio State University behavioral ecologist Gerald G. Carter. — Jason G. Goldman, Scientific American, "Blood Ties: Vampire Bats Build Trust to Become Food-Sharing Pals," 19 Mar. 2020 Owl pellets, or undigested masses of bones and fur regurgitated by owls, are a popular dissection project for fifth graders, and Gilliam gets a large shipment each year. — Erin Richards, USA TODAY, "Teacher Appreciation Week: They wanted respect. It only took a coronavirus pandemic and worldwide economic collapse.," 4 May 2020 The researchers trained the computer to identify a behavior called trophallaxis, in which honey bees feed their fellow workers by regurgitating food from a pouch called a crop. — Erik Stokstad, Science | AAAS, "Deadly virus turns honey bees into Trojan horses," 28 Apr. 2020 In a worrying sign for Antarctic wildlife, Borowicz has started finding bits of plastic in bird boluses, lumps of undigested food that birds regurgitate as part of the feeding process. — Time, "Plastics Still Manage to Reach the End of the World. One Organization Is Trying to Make Sure Polluters Are Held Responsible," 9 Apr. 2020 Everybody was just regurgitating what Grandpa had taught. — The Editors, Outdoor Life, "The Influencers: 19 People Who Have Changed the Outdoors (for Better and for Worse)," 20 Nov. 2017 Even then, Sanders is regurgitating Communist propaganda. — David Harsanyi, National Review, "Why Bernie Sanders’s Praise of Fidel Castro Matters," 25 Feb. 2020 His claims about fundamental genetic differences between races continues to be regurgitated. — Alex Shephard, The New Republic, "Charles Murray Is Never Going Away," 28 Jan. 2020

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